








•»'•* ^0 
























SIR FRANCIS BACON'S 
OWN STORY 



SIR FRANCIS BACON'S 
OWN STORY 



BY 

J. E. ROE 

author of 

"bacon and his masks 

the defoe period unmasked" 



"I have (though in a despised weed) procured 
the good of all men " — Francis St. Alban 



BY THE AUTHOR 

The DuBois Press 

Rochester, N. Y. 



A^*^ 



^v^ 



Copyright 1918 
BY 

J. E. ROE 



FEB 20 1818 
©CI.A492327 



A-tC. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Sir Francis Bacon's Own Story Complete in 

Five Chapters 

A Foreword, or Relational Facts — The Mission 3 

Introduction 6 

Door of Entrance 12 

Chapter I. Was Francis Bacon a concealed poet? 
Did he write Sonnets concerning Queen Elizabeth? 
His covert Shakespeare Sonnets touching her 
successor. Had he personal interest in this suc- 
cession? His struggle with the royal "Will," the 
will of Elizabeth while seeking official position. 
Coke his great rival placed in his stead. . . . 17 

Chapter II. Francis Bacon's Overthrow, his im- 
peachment and fall, and his dealings with his 
sovereign or King, James 1st, during and follow- 
ing that event, as set forth in his Shakespeare 
Sonnets 26 

Chapter III. Francis Bacon's wonder. His new 
inductive or tabular system of philosophy. That 
something absolutely new of the Shakespeare Son- 
net 59, and its eternized "tables" of Sonnet 122, 

^^ and its "great bases for eternity" of Sonnets 124 
and 125; in other words his "new born child;" his 
"Noblest Birth of Time." These "tables" were 
to bear his name to future ages, and make him 
long outlive "that idle rank" which downed him. 48 



2 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

PAGE 

Chapter IV. Shake-speare, Bacon's cover; his 
"noted weed" of Sonnet 76. His two Sonnet Sen- 
tinels — the T. T. Enigma and the 1609 Ante-date. 
The true causes involved in his overthrow. His 
"second life on second head" of Sonnet 68. His 
Posthumous Pocket labors. The Carlyle waifs 
from the Bacon budget. He remained long, long 
at labor. Was in concealment from and after 
1626. As covert secretary and mouth-piece to 
Cromwell and the Independents, he was behind 
the great struggle that put Charles 1st from the 
English throne. If Elizabeth's rightful successor, 
was he not England's lawful King? His "Holy 
War," his "Pilgrim's Progress," his "Milton." . 80 

Chapter V. The field of Invention. Relation of 
the sciences to Poetry. Cyphers of both literary 
periods. The undisclosed Overall cypher of the 
second. This the true Key. The "Sartor Resar- 
tus," Bacon's work of durance. Contains it the 
"Alphabet?" .190 



RELATIONAL FACTS 

Touching his greatest discovery, his "Alphabet of 
Nature," or the discovery of forms, Bacon says: "He 
is an ill discoverer who thinks there is no land when he 
can see nothing but sea." 

The value he, himself, set upon this "Alphabet" of 
forms — laws of "the simple natures" — he states thus: 
"Such then is the rule and plan of the alphabet. May 
God the Maker, the Preserver, the Renewer of the uni- 
verse, of his love and compassion to man protect and 
guide this work, both in its ascent to His glory, and in its 
descent to the good of man, through His only Son, God 
with us." 

This "Alphabet," his "Noblest Birth of Time," was 
to be revealed only through or by means of his "Formula 
of Interpretation," be it remembered; for intended con- 
cealment, as well as confusion, has long lurked here, 
baffling all of his critics. This "Formula" this key, 
Reader, was to be his only heir. 

Speaking of his great felt mission, Francis Bacon, him- 
self, says: "I have taken all knowledge to be my provi- 
dence." 

He undertook to exercise a "providence" — note the 
word — over all human learning. See this scope portrayed 
in his "New Atlantis" with its twelve heads, and one con- 
cealed. In its closing paragraph we have: "I give thee 
leave to publish it for the good of other nations, for we 
are here in God's bosom a land unknown." He believed 
the human body to be nature's apex, and nature to be 
God's art, and the human mind, to be the seat of prov- 
idence. 



4 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

In his Shakespeare Plays, he was at labor in the 
wilderness. And in Hamlet, of his great mission, says: 
"The time is out of joint, O, cursed spite that ever I was 
born to set it right." 

In his "Novum Organum" — New Organ — he was at 
labor upon that something absolutely new, his tabular 
system of philosophy, and of it, says: "Nay, it is a 
point fit and necessary in the front and beginning of this 
work, without hesitation or reservation to be professed, 
that it is not less true in this human kingdom of knowl- 
edge than in God's kingdom of Heaven, that no man 
shall enter into it except he become first as a little child." 
At its completion and publication he called it, "my new 
born child," as we shall see. While yet in its swaddlings, 
before publication, he in Hamlet refers to it as: "That 
great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling- 
clouts." 

In his labors on theology, he, in the introductory 
pages to his "New Organ," says: "Having completed by 
a rigorous levy a complete host of divine works, nothing 
remains to be done but to attack philosophy itself." We 
echo and re-echo to you. Reader, the question: What 
became of these divine works? 

As to labors touching government, he in 1623 says: 
"If I should hereafter have leisure to write upon govern- 
ment, the work will probably be either posthumous or 
abortive." Concerning concealment of method, he says: 
"The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of 
the king is to find it out; as if, according to the innocent 
play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide 
his works to the end to have them found out; and as if 
Kings could not obtain greater honor than to be God's 
play-fellows in that game." 



THE NEW AGE 5 

Bacon's brooding note rests here. He imitated the 
divine plan throughout his works. His "New Organ" 
was but the tabernacle in which his key, his "Formula of 
Interpretation," was to be the Ark. This key, this 
"Formula" was by design never placed. It was reserved to 
a private succession as will hereafter appear from his own 
words. We are now and here in search of it, Reader. By 
the foregoing we would assist the reader's apprehension 
in grasping, at the outset, the covert nature of the 
Baconian mission. 



INTRODUCTION 

IN a literary sense, whoever follows Francis Bacon 
feeds at the highest line of the world's literature. 
This is as true to-day, as it was two centuries ago. 
His matchless ideation and cogency of reason, were never 
equalled. These proclaim him the world 's Hterary master, 
and in a sense not yet made manifest, as we shall see. We 
agree with Macaulay that the amplitude of his compre- 
hension was never yet vouchsafed to any other human 
being. This it was that gave character to his vast reform, 
its subtlety of execution, and its never before attempted 
method of introduction. Its key-note, using his own words, 
was: "Without the help of the knowledge of evil, virtue 
remains open and unfenced." 

With his views the deeps of Satan should be all known 
to him who would be the true instructor, as we shall see 
later from his own words. We shall also see, that he under- 
took to exercise a providence over all human learning, and 
in this, among other things, reports a history of literature 
wanting. 

We here set you up a point. Reader. Let it be retained, 
please, throughout the reading of this work, to wit, "a 
history of literature is wanting. " To supply this was but 
part of his great Posthumous Pocket labors. 

While throughout, as in his Plays, entertainment of 
the mind was to be the lever, the help of the knowledge of 
evil was to be the fulcrum, to lift the age to a higher 
level. 

We shall here invite the attention of the student of 
English literature to something new; and which will 
render it more easy, both of apprehension and retention. 



THE NEW AGE 7 

But whatever we may do in this work, we desire above all 
else to make it clear, that Francis Bacon's key, his 
"Formula of Interpretation," this new light, was never 
revealed by him while living, but was reserved to a 
private succession, as we shall see. 

Following his fall, he says: "I shall devote myself to 
letters, instruct the actors and serve posterity. In such a 
course, I shall perhaps find honor and I shall pass my life 
as within the verge of a better." These actors were 
factors of his pen. They were his facets of light. They 
were his "hands of my hands." Their doings, Reader, 
were to come out from the "cabinets, boxes and presses" 
named in his last will. 

When his story, the covert story of Elizabeth's suc- 
cessor has been rightly told; it will not appear as strangely 
as now, that he ended not his earthly career by death at 
the Earl of Arundel's house, as now generally supposed; 
but was covertly behind that great struggle which put 
Charles 1st from the English throne. We come to you in 
this work. Reader, with a new message. We shall endeavor, 
in the main, to give Bacon's words throughout leaving 
the reader to his own conclusions. Upon the thread of 
his life we shall find, among others, his Shakespeare 
Sonnets, his Plays, his dream drama,- — "The Pilgrim's 
Progress,"— his "Holy War," his "History of the Devil," 
his "Milton," his "Tale of a Tub," addressed to poster- 
ity, and that work of durance his "Sartor Resartus." And 
"the river of his history" will long bear them up. 

Into this literary carcass, we shall now make entrance 
through those adroitly prepared tell-tales, known as the 
Shakespeare Sonnets. Having shown in the work itself, « 
that "that eternity promised" by Francis Bacon to his 
"noted weed," — his Shakespeare, — in the Enigma found 



8 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

upon their title page, subscribed T. T.; was fulfilled to the 
letter in Sonnet 81; and that he made both Shakespeare's 
epitaph and monument; we here and now permit him in 
his own chosen words in Sonnets 88, 89 and 90, to tell the 
reader the circumstances connected with that strange and 
most striking feature of his career, his own personal over- 
throw. And so to King James in Sonnet 88 Bacon says: 

WHEN thou shalt be disposed to set me light 
And place my merit in the eye of scorn, 
Upon thy side against myself I'll fight 
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn. 
With mine own weakness being best acquainted. 
Upon thy part I can set down a story 
Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted. 
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory: 
And I by this will be a gainer too; 
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee, 
The injuries that to myself I do. 
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. 
Such is my love, to thee I so belong, 
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong." 

The writer of this Sonnet has, in the Sonnets, so 
clearly particularized the points involved in his own 
personal overthrow as to need little comment to those 
famihar with that event. See Sonnets 89 and 90. Note 
"purposed overthrow" in Sonnet 90. 

But were these three Sonnets addressed to a king? If 
doubted, see please Sonnets 57 and 58. In Sonnet 57 we 
have, "Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you." 
That the overthrow was acquiesced in, to shield the King, 
see Sonnet 125. That the submission was upon the 
King's urgent advice, see Sonnet 49. That there was an 



THE NEW AGE 9 

interview with the King for the purpose, see please 
Sonnet 113. As to the King's pretended sorrow, sympathy, 
and tears, see Sonnets 34 and 35. That they were "Siren 
tears" see later Sonnet 119. That the author was made 
"tongue-tied" before his shearers, see Sonnets 66 and 140. 
That "needy nothing trimm'd in jollity" of Sonnet 66 
was, we say Buckingham, the then King's favorite. 
Shaksper? Ha! 

Reader, has not ignorance long enough been made to 
o'er-crow, and crown the brow, of the best literature of 
modern times? If not, then let our wise lauder, not of 
culture, but the crow, still make manifest to the literary 
world, if he can, Shaksper's authorship of the foregoing 
Sonnet, yea Sonnets. 

We stay for his performance. We challenge it. He 
shall not longer escape by jumps. While waiting, we would 
suggest to the reader something new, yes New! con- 
cerning the envy and overthrow of this great genius; of 
whom Macaulay says: "With great minuteness of 
observation, he had an amplitude of comprehension that 
was never yet vouchsafed to any other human being." 

Among private notes, in Greek, made subsequent to 
his fall. Bacon says: "My story is proud." 

Though nearly three centuries have passed, that story, 
the true story, of Francis Bacon's overthrow, has not been 
told. Reader. We say it has not! We will yet tell it, first 
in the Sonnets, then in the facts of his history in Chapter 4, 
space forbids it here. Bacon himself alludes to it, cau- 
tiously, in the "several plot" of that subtle Sonnet 137. 
The King's hypnotism over him had ceased, at the 
writing of Sonnets 118, 140 and 147, let it be remembered. 
Make now these four Sonnets into Shaksper pabulum, you 
who can. Shaksper was the player, Shakespeare the nom 



10 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

de plume. The numbering of the Sonnets was but part of 
their method of concealment, as was their Enigma, their 
ante-date and their pronoun cover words. 

Come ye men of culture, having received the dope of 
literary domination, and snored for nearly three centuries, 
may not the new literary seed bed of Francis St. Alban 
now take air? If not, sleep on; the time will come when 
this restorer of ancient learning will have his due. He 
himself says: "So I seem to have my conversation 
among the ancients, more than among these with whom I 
live." Let this thought as to the ancients be retained by 
the reader through every stage of this work until we reach 
his "Classic Authors in Wood." "Men are made of 
wood," says Bacon. The Plays are his wood-notes of 
their doings. They represent the wilderness, the old 
witch; the world; and they were warbled wild, to be else- 
where expanded. Of that expansion we will tell you later, 
in connection with Francis Bacon's "second life on second 
head" of Sonnet 68 where the good days of Queen Eliza- 
beth are contrasted with the "bastard signs of fair" of 
those of James the 1st. 

The foregoing Sonnets now placed, as well as others, 
see Sonnet 121, will hereafter remain an enduring revela- 
tion upon this question of authorship. And we here throw 
wide the door. 

Bacon's own dummy may now yield him place as the 
real author. It is for the welfare of literature that this be 
now done; for a new literary age will yet arise out of that 
"unseen sowing," that "second life on second head," be 
it remembered. We will endeavor later in the work 
itself to make clear the points here touched to relation, 
and especially concerning the overthrow. In the interest 
of justice, as well as of literature, this should now be done. 



THE NEW AGE 11 

And we will perform it, we trust, to the satisfaction of 
careful thought. This, though brief, is our carefully 
prepared speech to posterity, concerning important his- 
toric events, that, to this hour, remain a cloud upon 
literature. 

In this work our "Defoe Period Unmasked" will be 
made use of, as a work of reference, for the benefit of any 
who may desire a more extended information upon the 
facts that may be here given. It has not till now, save 
a few copies, been given to the public. 



OUR DOOR OF ENTRANCE 

We here call to relation and division the never before 
interpreted Shakespeare Sonnets, reserving Bacon's Post- 
humous Pocket labors for the later portion of the work. 

The 154 scholastic compendiums of Francis Bacon, 
known as the Shakespeare Sonnets, having remained the 
world's literary puzzle for nearly three centuries, we 
thought it commendable to make further trial of their 
opening. After much careful research we found them to 
be covert tell-tales, not of the player Shaksper, but of 
Francis Bacon, their real author; and have called them into 
the divisions following. 

I. All of the Shakespeare Sonnets from 1 to 19 have a 
covert reference to succession. See Sonnets 2, 3 and 4. 
That they concern a Prince, and do not concern a private 
person, see, please. Sonnet 14, then 7 and 9. They were 
designed to suggest to Queen Elizabeth the importance to 
truth, of a Protestant heir, by her, to the English throne. 
See in this, please, the prognostication of Sonnet 14. The 
Catholic Mary Queen of Scots was, at the time, her suc- 
cessor. Elizabeth was the last of the House of Tudor. 
She had formed a fixed determination against marriage 
as is well known. This then was to leave vacant the 
English throne of Protestant heirs. This determination 
against marriage appears in several of these Sonnets; and 
in Sonnet 13 she is asked not to let "so fair a house fall to 
decay" and alluding to her father Henry 8th, the author 
says to her, "you had a father, let your son say so." Had 
Francis Bacon any interest in this succession, Reader? 
Was he a concealed poet.'' Did he himself write Sonnets 
concerning the Queen.? We shall see. 



THE NEW AGE 13 

II. A portion concerns their author's struggle with 
the royal "Will;" the will of Queen Elizabeth while seek- 
ing official position, his great rival being placed in his 
stead. See Sonnets 133 to 137 also 143 and 145. 

Let the capitalized "Will" in Sonnets 135, 136 and 
143 be carefully noted, as it is claimed to allude to the 
player's name Will. Will Shaksper. We submit that 
careful thought can never apply this word "Will," as here 
used, to the name of any individual. In Sonnet 143 the 
author alludes to the Queen as his mother, and to himself 
as her babe chasing her far behind, seeking his will through 
hers, and in Sonnet 135 asks her, for once, at least, to hide 
his will in hers. See in this, please, "Bacon's Letters" Vol. 
1, page 359; then see page 347 and 348. That the Queen 
really was his mother; see the subtlety of Sonnet 22. 
When he said to her in Sonnet 20 "And by addition me 
of thee defeated" referred he to Essex? See "Essex" in 
Bacon's cypher story. As this subject concerns the 
Queen, so we consider it with division 1 in our First 
Chapter. 

III. A portion of them concerns their author's own 
individual troubles, his impeachment and fall; and his 
dealings with his sovereign, or King, James 1st, during 
and following that event. 

IV. A portion concerns that wonder, their author's 
tabular system of philosophy, that something absolutely 
new of Sonnet 59, and its "tables" of Sonnet 122 and its 
blessed key of Sonnet 52, and its "great bases for eternity" 
of Sonnets 124 and 125. These "tables" were to bear 
the author's name to future ages, and make him long 
outlive "that idle rank" that downed him. 

V. A portion of them concerns their author's "noted 
weed" of Sonnet 16\ his nom de plume; in other words, 



14 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

his hyphened name Shake-speare. Most of the quartos 
have a hyphen between the words Shake and speare. 
The player's name was Shaksper. Following his fall, in a 
carefully written prayer, Bacon says: "I have (though 
in a despised weed) procured the good of all men." We 
understand him here to allude to those thought patterns 
his Shakespeare plays. 

VI. A portion of them concerns a new life by their 
author upon a new or "second head," as stated in Sonnet 
68, where the good days of Queen Elizabeth are con- 
trasted with the "bastard signs of fair" of those of James 
1st under whom he met his overthrow. This Sonnet must 
ever form the line of demarkation between Francis 
Bacon's first and second literary periods. This division 
will be considered in connection with division 5, in our 
4th chapter. 

VII. A portion of them concerns praise of their 
author's own mental gifts as notably in Sonnets 53 and 122 
and of his philosophy or greatly felt mission; as in Sonnet 
59 but which praise, or "self-love," he later much con- 
demns in himself in Sonnet 62 which ends thus: 

"'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise 
Pointing my age with beauty of thy days." 

Note here the words "thee," "myself." This is the first 
and only Sonnet that gives the key to their author's 
method of cover words used in them. This should be 
studied with some care as it is used in other portions of 
Bacon's non-attributed work. He here shows that the 
pronoun "thee" refers to himself, and is in this a disclosed 
cover word. The author preserved his manners in not 
openly praising himself, by use of these pronoun cover 
words here considered. He describes his method in the 



THE NEW AGE 15 

above quotation in the words, "'Tis thee, myself, that for 
myself I praise." 

Under this division of the Sonnets the pronouns, 
"thee," "thy," "thou," "you," "he," "his," "him" and 
"himself" and others are used as cover words wherein the 
author alludes to himself, or to his own intelligence. To 
instance, in the words, "you" and "your," in Sonnet 53, 
the author lauds his own mental gifts. In the same words, 
"you" and "your," he alludes to himself in Sonnet 55. He 
does this in Sonnets 67 and 68 in the words, "he," "his" and 
"him." By "him" in Sonnet 19 the author breathes the 
wish that he might be "beauty's pattern to succeeding 
men," but would be so, note the word, "untainted." 

This use of pronouns in the second and third person 
instead of the first, as a cover to conceal the author's 
identity, was made use of by Dante, Homer, and Horace. 
Dante in excusing himself for it says: "In Horace, man 
is made to speak to his own intelligence as unto another 
person; and not only hath Horace done this, but herein 
he followeth the excellent Homer." This must ever be 
the first postulate in a correct interpretation of the Sonnets 
which fall under this division. Careful study of their con- 
text will show whether the author alludes to philosophy as 
in Sonnet 29 and 37 or to king, queen or himself. 

In scope, all of the Sonnets may properly be herded 
under one or the other of the foregoing divisions. 



FRANCIS BACON'S OWN STORY 



CHAPTER I 

WAS FRANCIS BACON A CONCEALED POET? 
WROTE HE SONNETS CONCERNING QUEEN ELIZA- 
BETH? HIS COVERT SHAKESPEARE SONNETS 
TOUCHING HER SUCCESSOR. HAD HE PERSONAL 
INTEREST IN THIS SUCCESSION? HIS STRUGGLE 
WITH HER ROYAL "wILl" FOR OFFICIAL POSITION. 

THAT Francis Bacon was a concealed poet, he, him- 
self shall tell you, reader. He says: "All history, 
excellent King, treads the earth performing the duty 
of a guide, rather than a light, and poetry is, as it were, the 
stream of knowledge." See Invention and the relation of 
poetry to the sciences at the opening of Chapter 5. 

It will be said this but shows the value Bacon set upon 
the "stream" — the ancient poets — for light, for informa- 
tion; and in no way shows him to have been a performer 
in, or writer of, poetry. True; yet this is a legitimate step, 
we think, to the platform intended, which says. Sir 
Francis Bacon was a "dark author;" a concealed poet, the 
scope and subtlety of whose gifts have never been sur- 
passed. 

At the accession of the Scotch King, James, to the 
English throne, at the death of Elizabeth in 1603, Bacon 
addressed a careful letter to his literary friend. Sir John 
Davis, desiring him to interest himself in his. Bacon's 
behalf, with the incoming King, and he closes the letter 
thus: "So desiring you to be good to concealed poets, I 
continue your very assured. Fr. Bacon." 



18 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Comes he not here upon our platform, reader? If, then, 
Francis Bacon was a concealed poet, by his own showing, 
ought we to expect him to put this in flourish, upon pages 
of his attributed writings? Or in any place? Surely not. 

Mr. Spedding, in a foot-note to the letter, says: "The 
allusion to concealed poets I cannot explain." That the 
letter forbids any other interpretation, than the one given, 
see "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding (Vol. 3, p. 65). 

But again, did Francis Bacon employ his pen, as a poet, 
in Sonnet writing; and particularly in Sonnets concerning 
the Queen? He shall tell. He says: "A little before that 
time, being about the middle of Michaelmas term, her 
Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodge at Twicknam 
Park, at which time I had (though I profess not to be a 
poet) prepared a Sonnet directly tending and alluding to 
draw on her Majesty's reconcilement to my Lord." 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 3, p. 149. Of the Queen he says: 
"She suffered herself, and was very willing to be courted, 
wooed, and to have sonnets made in her commendation; 
and she continued this longer than was decent for her 
years." 

We now present the reader an example of Francis 
Bacon's poetic skill, in a Sonnet concededly written by him, 
touching Queen Elizabeth, and quote from "Bacon's 
Letters" by Spedding, Vol. 1, p. 388, thus: 

"Seated between the Old World and the New, 
A land there is no other land may touch. 
Where reigns a Queen in peace and honor true; 
Stories or fables do describe no such. 
Never did Atlas such a burden bear, 
As she, in holding up the world opprest; 
Supplying with her virtue everywhere 
Weakness of friends, errors of servants best. 



A CONCEALED POET 19 

No nation breeds a warmer blood for war, 
And yet she calms them by her majesty; 
No age hath ever wits refined so far, 
And yet she calms them by her policy; 
To her, thy son must make his sacrifice 
If he will have the morning of his eyes." 

Few, we think, are aware of the existence of this Sonnet, 
or of the occasion which called it forth. We would place 
it. Let the style, structure and literary merit of this 
Sonnet, this talker in verse, be drawn into direct relation 
and studious comparison with every, and each, of the 
Shakespeare Sonnets, so called, beginning with the lauda- 
tion of the Queen in Sonnet 106, where we have: 

WHEN in the chronicle of wasted time 
I see descriptions of the fairest wights, 
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme 
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights, 
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best, 
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, 
I see their antique pen would have express'd 
Even such a beauty as you master now. 
So all their praises are but prophecies 
Of this our time, all you prefiguring; 
And, for they look'd but with divining eyes, 
They had not skill enough your worth to sing: 
For we, which now behold these present days. 
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise." 

Here is your opportunity, reader, your tentative Ex- 
ample. You may here contrast the obverse and reverse, 
or the light and dark side of this great genius, this inter- 
preter of the ancients, this literary mint. Shaksper? Ha! 



20 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Already the cover — the nom de plume — has served its 
purpose. The unmasking comes more easily in the 
Sonnets, than in the Plays. 

Bacon's special praise of the Queen will be found not 
merely in the mentioned Shakespeare Sonnet 106, but most 
notably in Act V., Scene IV, of his play of "Henry the 
Eighth." Fail not reader to see there, please, what he says 
concerning her successor. The writer of the plays a 
Catholic? This particularized prophesy and noble lauda- 
tion as to the infant Elizabeth in Henry the 8th make it 
certain that he was not. Though the last of the House of 
Tudor, she had formed a fixed determination against 
marriage. All of the Shakespeare Sonnets, from 1 to 19, 
concern Elizabeth and succession. They are designed to 
suggest to her the importance to truth of an heir to the 
English throne, through her. That the mentioned eighteen 
Sonnets concern a Prince, and do not concern a private 
person, see Sonnets 7 and 9, and particularly Sonnet 14, 
which prognosticates danger to truth, and extinction of 
the Queen's beauty, if she fails of issue; that is, to "con- 
vert" herself "to store." See the Sonnet. The author in 
Sonnet 13, clearly alludes to the House of Tudor, and 
urges upon the Queen not to let "so fair a house fall to 
decay." He there likewise alludes to her father, Henry 
the Eighth, and says to her: "You had a father; let your 
son say so." 

It is for the thinker we design this work, and he will 
find himself rewarded by careful examination of the refer- 
ences given. 

If now Bacon was really the son of Leicester and the 
Queen, by a valid, secret marriage, as claimed in his own 
Bi-literal Cypher Story, presented in Mrs. Gallup's won- 
derful book; then may these purposeful eighteen Sonnets be 



A CONCEALED POET 21 

justly regarded as an adroit urging upon the Queen to 
declare or proclaim his own lawful right to the throne, as 
her successor; well knowing at the time her years forbid 
issue, and that she could not, or would not, wed. As she 
could not be induced to do this, so in Sonnet 68 "the right 
of sepulchres were shorn away." Do Sonnets 22 and 143 
concern mother and son? Let it now be observed that our 
first quoted Sonnet ends in significant words. The word, 
in parentheses touching the father, Leicester, is ours. 

"To her, thy son (Leicester), must make his sacrifice, 
If he will have the morning of his eyes." 

Bacon, to Elizabeth, did make the sacrifice, as we shall 
see; and he did thereby, for a time, get "the morning of his 
eyes." This Sonnet, let it be noted, was written by Francis 
Bacon, as part of a mask, to be played before the Queen, 
following his long tentative struggle with her, for the office, 
first, of attorney-general, and then of solicitor; and, of 
her final rejection of him in both instances, after a dalliance 
of upwards of two years. (Bacon's Letters, Vol. 1, p. 369 
and 370). 

The history of the event will show that she had in- 
duced him to believe that he was to receive the appoint- 
ment. (Bacon's Letters, Vol. 1, p. 359. See on p. 348, 
what he says of the Queen's willfulness in the matter). 
Earlier, by a speech in Parliament, he had offended her; 
and would not, or at least had not, retracted or apol- 
ogized. We here claim to the reader that during this. 
Bacon's greatest, yea, his only struggle with the Queen, 
the notable Shakespeare Sonnets 135, 136 and 143 were 
written. They belong with our 2nd Division of the 
Sonnets. 



22 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

As the word "Will," In the three Sonnets, begins with a 
capital, it is said to stand for Will Shaksper. Here rests 
the most conspicuous argument for his authorship. We 
say that by no just theory of interpretation can the word 
be tortured to stand for the name of any individual. In 
each instance the word refers to the human will, and here 
stands for the royal Will, the will of Queen Elizabeth, and 
hence capitalized. "Best we lay a straw here," says 
Bacon in his Promus Note 108. 

The Queen is represented in Sonnet 136 to be so willful 
that her love, her very being, centers in, and stands for, 
"Will." So the author says, if she will make his name to 
stand for her love, it will then be Will. That this inter- 
pretation cannot be justly questioned, see Sonnet 135. 
In Sonnets 133 and 134, he is said, through his friend, to 
be mortgaged to her will. The history of the event shows 
that the Queen forbade Bacon to come into her presence, 
and Sonnet 136 opens thus: 

"If thy soul check thee that I come so near, 
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will, 
And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there." 

All of the Shakespeare Sonnets are concise talkers, 
talkers in verse, let it be remembered. Though subtle, 
when the event to which they belong is found, they are in 
full accord. Everywhere in them we have Bacon's 
vocabulary. The struggle with the Queen having ended, 
she, through Essex, made good his losses. Thus he found 
"the morning of his eyes." Then came Sonnet 145, and 
the dutiful submission elegantly portrayed to her, in the 
subtle mask wherein our quoted Sonnet forms but a part. 
In it will be found a touch of Bacon's secret mission against 
Spain or the Castilians. 



A CONCEALED POET 23 

Returning now to the use of the words, "Of hand, of 
foot, of lip, of eye, of brow," in Sonnet 106, and to the 
probabilities that it concerns the Queen and Bacon's 
authorship, we, from "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding, Vol. 
1, page 138 quote him thus: "For the beauty and many 
graces of her presence, what colours are fine enough for such 
a portraiture ? Let no light poet be used for such a descrip- 
tion but the chastest and royalest. Of her gait, of her 
voice, of her eye, of her colour, of her neck, of her breast, 
of her hair. If this be presumption, let him bear the blame 
that oweth the verses." Stay, here please reader, a 
moment for reflection. That Bacon wrote Sonnets con- 
cerning the Queen clearly appears from his own words. 

In Sonnet 15 he tells her that by his pen, he engrafts 
her new as Time takes from her. But in Sonnet 16 he re- 
turns to the ruling idea involved in the first eighteen 
Sonnets, to wit, the covert subject of succession. The 
author in this Sonnetmakes reference to his pen as "Time's 
pencil or my pupil pen." Was it Shaksper's pen, reader? 
It here seems proper to focalize attention upon Bacon's 
emphasis upon the subject of time and his distinctive use 
of the word as spread in the Sonnets, in the plays and 
throughout his writings. See, please, Sonnet 123. We 
find him using such expressions as, "The noblest birth of 
time," "The wrongs of time," "The injuries of time," 
"It drinketh too much time," "To entertain the time," 
"Time is as a river." But in this brief outlining we must 
not stay upon the language features. In this, see the foot- 
notes to our " Defoe Period." Note our purpose in them at 
p. 30. 

When, touching his believed-in mission Bacon said, 
"I have taken all knowledge to be my providence;" he 
of it also said; "This, whether it be curiosity, or vain 



24 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

glory, or nature, or (if one take It favorably) philan- 
thropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed." 
See, please, "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding, Vol. 1, pages 
108 and 109; or our "Defoe Period" pages 24 to 27 and 21 
to 24. 

This undated letter to his kinsman Burghley, then 
High Treasurer of England, and drawn forth by his 
necessities at or near his mentioned struggle with the 
Queen, and, we think, immediately following that event, 
should be read in full, remembering that its word "prov- 
ince" is erroneously substituted for Bacon's word "prov- 
idence" as elsewhere shown. See our "Defoe Period" 
p. 25, 27 and 76, 

This letter we would place as a continuing Head-light 
to the great purposes which were in Bacon's mind at the 
age of thirty-one. In it he says to his kinsman: "I con- 
fess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have 
moderate civil ends, for I have taken all knowledge to be 
my providence." He also says if he will not assist him to 
some place in her Majesty's service, "I will sell the in- 
heritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick 
revenue, or some office of gain that shall be executed by 
deputy, and so give over all care of service, and become 
some sorry bookmaker or a true pioneer in that mine of 
truth which is said to lay so deep." 

Let these thoughts, these fixed purposes be carefully 
remembered when we come later in Chapter 4 to his new 
seats of learning. He evidently believed that for England 
at least "Time's pencil" was in his hand. Let it likewise 
be remembered that whoever believes himself wiser than 
his neighbor has ever envy at the door. Prejudice.^ 
Where, reader, can be found a more hateful devil to human 
progress? How can there be a steady advancement of 



A CONCEALED POET 25 

learning when the pseudo-literary domineer over and 
rule all. To break this domination and set free the intel- 
lect was the business of his new seats of learning, "his 
almost new features in the intellectual world," as we shall 
see later. 



CHAPTER II 

FRANCIS bacon's OVERTHROW. HIS DEALINGS 
WITH HIS SOVEREIGN OR KING, JAMES IST, 
DURING AND FOLLOWING THAT EVENT, AS SET 
FORTH IN HIS SHAKESPEARE SONNETS. 

AS Francis Bacon's overthrow was the strange and 
most striking feature of his career, so from this 
platform would we begin the work of shaking out 
the folds of his vast reform. After the Ippse of nearly 
three hundred years, we permit Sir Francis Bacon to 
relate, in his own chosen words, the circumstances of his 
impeachment and fall. This we do in an examination of 
those of his Shakespeare Sonnets which concern the fall 
of their author; using but material sufficient to call them 
to relation with that strange event. 

The Shakespeare Sonnets are guarded upon their title- 
page first by an ante-date 1609; and later by an Enigma 
subscribed T. T. These two Sentinels will be considered 
later in Chapter 4. 

Suffice it here to say, that the Shakespeare Sonnets, 
as we now have them, were not in print prior to Bacon's 
fall in 1621. They have thus far been considered enig- 
matic as to any special design or purpose; and to be but 
poetic effusions, though great labor has been bestowed 
upon them. The noted Shakespearean, Grant White, 
says, "The mystery of the Shakespeare Sonnets will 
never be unfolded." Subtlety must therefore be looked 
for by the reader, who should assist in getting our points 
with the least number of words. 

The difficulty has ever been in trying to place these 
garments where they can in no true sense be made to fit. 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 27 

While drawing the Sonnets, as a whole, into several 
distinct heads, they having been written at different periods 
of their author's life, we purpose here to consider only 
those which concern his fall, and his dealings with his 
King — James I — during, and following that event. Its 
every detail, is, as we shall see, portrayed in them. 

We trust, therefore, that the legal profession, which is 
our own, as well as the learned world generally, will be 
willing to be informed, even in verse, why the great St. 
Alban yielded to the King; and abandoned his defense. 

This investigation will be found important in that, if 
right, it settles the whole question of authorship of plays, 
Sonnets, and other writings; and this without aid of key 
or cypher. 

To make sure to the reader, at the outset, that the 
Sonnets to which we here refer, concern a King, or sover- 
eign, we quote Sonnet 57 in full. Its author — was it 
Shaksper? — says to the King: 

BEING your slave, what should I do but tend 
Upon the hours and times of your desire? 
I have no precious time at all to spend. 
Nor services to do, till you require. 
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour 
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you. 
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour 
When you have bid your servant once adieu; 
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought 
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose. 
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought 
Save, where you are how happy you make those. 
So true a fool is love that in your will. 
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill." 



28 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

And what made the author of this Sonnet, whoever he 
was, the King's slave? It begins with "Being your slave" 
and Sonnet 58 opens with "What God forbid that made 
me first your slave." This we will tell the reader later in 
connection with Sonnet 120 in Chapter 4. We will there 
show when the King's secret hatred of Bacon became 
active. These Sonnets are in a sense, self reminders, solilo- 
quies. Sonnets 57 and 58 were written while their author, 
Bacon, was waiting for, and expecting the King's promised 
pardon. The submissive attitude of a subject to his 
King, will appear in the words, "to thee I so belong," 
in Sonnet 88. 

In Sonnets 58 and 87 the King's "charter" is directly 
alluded to. Bacon was his Chancellor at the time of his 
fall, and a "watchman ever for his sake," as stated in 
Sonnet 61. Note "image" as personating the King in 
this Sonnet. Bacon says: "I have borne your Majesty's 
image in metal, much more in heart." In Sonnet 48 note 
his good resolve taken when he was first made Chancellor. 
The "jewels" of this Sonnet concern the author's literary 
works as seen in Sonnets 52, 63, 64 and 65. In speaking of 
the structure of his great philosophic system. Bacon says, 
"I give thee the greatest jewel I have." 

The history of Francis Bacon's impeachment and fall 
for bribery, while England's Chancellor, clearly shows 
that he was diligently preparing for his defense when he 
was sent for by the King; that an interview took place; 
that Bacon prepared minutes for it. "Bacon's Letters," 
vol. 7, page 235 where we have: "There be three degrees 
or cases of bribery charged or supposed in a judge: 

1. The first, of bargain or contract for reward to 
pervert justice, pendente lite. 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 29 

2. The second, where the Judge conceives the cause 
to be at an end by the information of the party, or other- 
wise, and useth not such diligence as he ought to inquire 
of it. 

3. And the third when the cause is really ended, and 
it is sine fraude without relation to any precedent promise. 
Now if I might see the particulars of my charge, I should 
deal plainly with your Majesty, in whether of these 
degrees every particular case falls. 

But for the first of them, I take myself to be as inno- 
cent as any born upon St. Innocent's day, in my heart. 

For the second, I doubt in some particulars I may be 
faulty. 

And for the last, I conceived it to be no fault, but 
therein I desire to be better informed, that I may be twice 
penitent, once for the fact, and again for the error. For 
I had rather be a briber, than a defender of bribes. 

I must likewise confess to your Majesty that at new- 
years tides and likewise at my first coming in (which was 
as it were my wedding), I did not so precisely as perhaps 
I ought exainine whether those that presented me had 
causes before me, yea or no." 

He was Lord Keeper at the time he was made Chancel- 
lor. To this time it had been the custom, as Mr. Spedding 
informs us, of making gratuities or presents to the Chan- 
cellors. The charges against him were chiefly of that 
nature. 

Earlier in a letter to the King, page 226, Bacon says, 
"I have been ever your man and counted myself but an 
usufructuary of myself, the property being yours; and 
now making myself an oblation to do with me as 
may best conduce to the honour of your justice, the 
honour of your mercy and the use of your service, 



30 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

resting as clay in your Majesty's gracious hands." 
In a later letter, page 241, he says, "This is the last suit 
I shall make to your Majesty in this business, prostrating 
myself at your mercy-seat, after fifteen year's service, 
wherein I have served your Majesty in my poor endeavors 
with an entire heart, and as I presumed to say unto your 
Majesty, am still a virgin for matters that concern your 
person or crown; and now only craving that after eight 
steps of honour I be not precipitated altogether." 

That any attempted defense by Bacon at the time 
would have been folly, will be shown later in Chapter 4. 
For two years and more, pitfalls were being laid for him 
as we shall see. 

Note in the foregoing his word "oblation" to the 
King. Note it then, to the King, in Sonnet 125. "Thou" 
in Sonnets 88, 89 and 90, alludes to him as we shall see. 
They ought all to be read studiously in relation with 
Bacon's words given above. In our Introduction we have 
already touched to relation Sonnet 88. Let it now be 
read studiously in relation with Sonnets 89 and 90. The 
author in Sonnet 89 says to the King: 

SAY that thou didst forsake me for some fault. 
And I will comment upon that offence; 
Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt. 
Against thy reasons making no defence. 
Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill, 
To set a form upon desired change. 
As Til myself disgrace: knowing thy will, 
I will acquaintance strangle and look strange. 
Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue 
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell, 
Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 31 

And haply of our old acquaintance tell. 
For thee against myself I'll vow debate, 
For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate." 

Being now forsaken by the King, the author in the fore- 
going asks him to say that it was for some fault, and that 
against his reasons, he will make no defence; that if it was 
for reform, or "To set a form upon desired change" he 
would outdo the King in disgracing himself, and says: 

"For thee against myself I'll vow debate, 

For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate." 

That is, he must not love himself, being hated by the 
King. And he opens Sonnet 90 with: 

THEN hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; 
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross, 

Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow. 

And do not drop in for an after-loss: 

Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scaped this sorrow. 

Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe; 

Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, 

To linger out a purposed overthrow. 

If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last. 

When other petty griefs have done their spite, 

But in the onset come; so shall I taste 

At first the very worst of fortune's might. 

And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, 
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so." 

At the mentioned interview, the King is said to have 
promised Bacon pardon upon his voluntary submission, 
if the Peers failed to recognize his merit, and convicted 
him. We understand the King's failure to do this, as 



32 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

agreed, to be the "thou art forsworn" of this Sonnet 88, 
and the "bed-vow broke" of Sonnet 152. As to this 
bed-rock vow, of pardon and its breach between King 
and counsel, see Bacon on the marriage between princes 
and their counselors. 

In Sonnet 88, note its words, "That thou in losing me 
shalt win much glory." They show that the author was 
aware that his overthrow was to be an honor to the King. 
Into relation with them, we quote Bacon's letter to the 
King's favorite, Buckingham, the day following the 
sentence pronounced against him, thus: "My Very 
Good Lord: I hear yesterday was a day of very great 
honor to his Majesty, which I do congratulate. I hope, 
also, his Majesty may reap honor out of my adversity, 
as he hath done strength out of my prosperity. His 
Majesty knows best his own ways; and for me to despair 
of him, were a sin not to be forgiven. I thank God I 
have overcome the bitterness of this cup by Christian 
resolution, so that worldly matters are but mint and 
cumin. God ever preserve you." "Bacon's letters", vol. 7, 
p. 282. 

Touching the "spite of fortune" upon the author, 
mentioned in Sonnet 90, last quoted, see, please, Sonnets 
25, 29, 37 and 111. And were these in detail the ex- 
periences of William Shaksper with his sovereign? ha! 
We but call attention. We leave the reader to his re- 
flection. 

Concerning Bacon's mentioned interview with the 
King himself, see, please, Sonnet 113, which begins, 
"Since I left you;" and Sonnet 57 has, "When you have 
bid your servant once adieu." We understand the Sonnets 
here considered to indicate the very life of experience, and 
to have been couched by Bacon at, or near, the transit 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 33 

of events. Sonnet 113 shows the effect which the consent 
to abandon his defense had upon his mind. It is in these 
words : 

SINCE I left you, mine eye is in my mind; 
And that which governs me to go about 
Doth part his function and is partly blind, 
Seems seeing, but effectually is out; 
For it no form delivers to the heart 
Of bird, of flower, or shape, which it doth latch, 
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part. 
Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch; 
For if it see the rudest or gentlest sight. 
The most sweet favour or deformed'st creature, 
The mountain or the sea, the day or night, 
The crow or dove, it shapes them to your feature: 
Incapable of more, replete with you, 
My most true mind thus makes mine eye untrue." 

Note its closing words "replete with you" — the King. 
See "you"— the King — also, in Sonnet 112. The referred 
to, as well as the quoted Sonnets, should be studied. Yes, 
Reader, studied. 

Their numbering, let it be remembered, has nothing 
whatever to do with their subject-matter. It greatly con- 
fuses their true relations. They are hooded as already 
stated in four ways: by an Enigma, by an ante-date, by 
numbering, and by cover words. The cover words do not, 
however, concern this division of the Sonnets. As an egg 
will yield its meat only upon cracking the shell, so will 
these Sonnets only, upon their correct placing and in- 
terpretation. 

Bacon's defense, had it been made, would have drawn 
much odium upon the King; and he evidently did not 



34 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

propose to have it made as we shall see later. Bacon ever 
taught that the crown should, from the King's own errors, 
be shielded, and this though at the sacrifice of any of his 
ministers. And the whole tenor of the Sonnets here re- 
ferred to, shows that their author, whoever he was, was 
being submerged to shield the King; and as in Sonnet 
125 to "render only me for thee." The author says: 

WERE'T aught to me I bore the canopy, 
With my extern the outward honouring. 
Or laid great bases for eternity, 
Which prove more short than waste or ruining? 
Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour 
Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent. 
For compound sweet forgoing simple savour. 
Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent? 
No, let me be obsequious in thy heart, 
And take thou my oblation, poor but free. 
Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art, 
But mutual render, only me for thee. 

Hence, thou suborn'd informer! a true soul 
When most impeach'd stands least in thy control." 

Did space permit, we would gladly give Bacon's words 
concerning "seconds" here referred to. They will be 
touched later in Chapter 4 in connection with the plays. 
Touching the words of this Sonnet, "I bore the canopy, 
with my extern," we may say that the cry for reform, at 
the time, began concerning the exactions of Buckingham 
and his delinquents, and was totally abandoned as to all 
upon Bacon's submission. And Buckingham's advisor 
Williams stepped into Bacon's shoes as Chancellor of 
England. Later through Buckingham's influence, as we 
shall see, he stayed Bacon's pardon at the seal. 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 35 

To secure this submission was, we judge, the King's 
motive for the interview with Bacon touched earlier. The 
evidence satisfies us that there were two interviews, one 
sought by the King, the other by Bacon. Bacon said to 
Buckingham at the outset: "I woo nobody. I do but lis- 
ten." 

As to the words of the Sonnet, "Or laid great bases for 
eternity," we need say nothing here. This concerns the 
author's philosophy, that "something new" of Sonnet 59 
and its "tables" of Sonnet 122, which "tables"— see all 
of second book of "Novum Organum" — were to bear his 
name to future ages, and make him long outlive "that idle 
rank" which downed him. Bacon's entire system was 
based upon his "Tables of Discovery." 

This, however, must be examined in connection with 
that particular division of the Sonnets which concerns 
philosophy. Then their author's great love for it, and his 
"love wooing of truth," will be shown. 

Fear for the effect which their author's fall might have 
upon it, finds expression in Sonnet 107 where this great 
reflector of light refers to his fall, as an eclipse; and to him- 
self, as the "mortal moon." He says in Sonnet 60 that the 
eclipse was a crooked one. 

Let the reader now call the "compound sweet" of this 
Sonnet 125 into direct relation with the "eager com- 
pounds" of Sonnet 118, and the King's "ne'er-cloying 
sweetness." Note in it a portion of Bacon's nest of medical 
terms, applied ever by him to mental, as to material 
operations; and this, throughout the plays, as in his 
attributed work. This Sonnet 118 concerns disease and 
cure. It is designed to show that a healthful state was 
brought to medicine. Touching this in Sonnet 88 we have : 



36 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

"Upon thy part I can set down a story 
Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted, 
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory." 

The history of Bacon's fall shows that he did set down 
the story. He had no trial, but was convicted only upon a 
story or statement formulated by himself. How much 
there was in it to justify conviction, we leave to the reader. 
Spedding, in his Life of Bacon, Vol. 7, page 251, upon this 
point, says: "We are compelled to fall back upon Bacon 
himself, as being really our only authority; and to hold 
him guilty to the extent of his own confession, and no 
further." The King's "drugs," his "ne'er cloying sweet- 
ness," of which the author fell sick, in Sonnet 118, are said 
to be poison, and not medicine. We will give it later. 

At the writing of Sonnet 49 his hypnotism upon the 
author began to fade. He says: 

AGAINST that time, if ever that time come, 
When I shall see thee frown on my defects. 
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, 
Call'd to that audit by advised respects; 
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass 
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye, 
When love, converted from the thing it was, 
Shall reasons find of settled gravity, — 
Against that time do I ensconce me here 
Within the knowledge of mine own desert. 
And this my hand against myself uprear. 
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part: 

To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws, 
Since why to love I can allege no cause." 

These are not our words. Reader. It is Francis Bacon's 
own story we are trying to let him tell. Let it be here noted 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 37 

that the King had cast upon the author his utmost sum 
of love; and that he by "advised respects" was called to his 
"audit." 

Knight in his History of England, Vol. 3, p. 300, says: 
"The King had a loathsome way of lolling his arms about 
his favorites' necks, and kissing them." 

This King had secret wiles as did his mother the 
Queen of Scots. What less than hypnotism can account 
for Sonnets 26, 112, 113, 114, 150 and others; whoever may 
have been their author. See here our "Defoe Period," 
p. 161, note 1. But a few months before, the King had 
raised Bacon to the desired title of Saint — St. Alban. 
Finding the King's will. Bacon now placed himself in the 
same attitude towards him that he placed Cranmer, 
towards the King, in the play of Henry the 8th, to be 
touched later in Chapter 4. Let the would-be doubting 
reader pause here for reflection. In a letter to Bucking- 
ham, the now King's right hand, following his fall Bacon 
says: "I am not guilty to myself of any unworthiness 
except perhaps too much softness at the beginning of my 
troubles." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 313. Note in the 
foregoing Sonnet Bacon's distinctive use of the words 
"against," and "advised respects." 

As to the King's pretended sympathy and tears at the 
beginning of Bacon's troubles we quote his own words to 
the King upon being released from the Tower — he was 
there but two days — thus: "But your Majesty that did 
shed tears at the beginning of my troubles, will I hope shed 
the dew of your grace and goodness upon me in the end." 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 281. As to these tears of the 
King which were to "ransom all ill deeds," see Sonnet 34. 
In Sonnet 35 which surely must be read, he tells him to 
grieve no more. But after his trifling and delay in par- 



38 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

doning Bacon, as agreed, his tears are in Sonnet 119 re- 
ferred to, thus: 

WHAT potions have I drunk of Siren tears, 
Distill'd from Hmbecks foul as hell within. 

Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, 

Still losing when I saw myself to win! 

What wretched errors hath my heart committed, 

Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never! 

How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted 

In the distraction of this madding fever! 

O benefit of ill ! now I find true 

That better is by evil still made better; 

And ruin'd love, when it is built anew, 

Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. 
So I return rebuked to my content 
And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent." 

Touching the "fears to hopes and hopes to fears" of 
this Sonnet, see Sonnet 107. 

The King's bed-rock vow of pardon being now broken. 
Bacon in Sonnet 87 bids him "Farewell." In it he says: 
"And so my patent back again is swerving." Refers he 
here to his own lawful right to the crown ? Let this Sonnet 
be called to relation with Sonnet 152 where the author 
tells the King that to enlighten him "he gave eyes to 
blindness." He reminds him here of his "bed-vow 
broke", touched earlier as to the marriage between 
Princes and their counsellors p. 32. He then says to him: 
" All my honest faith in thee is lost." And he closes it with : 

"For I have sworn thee fair; more perjured I, 
To swear against the truth so foul a lie!" 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 39 

Touching now his "too much softness," his desire to 
please, Bacon in Sonnet 147 says: 

MY love is as a fever, longing still 
For that which longer nurseth the disease, 
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, 
The uncertain sickly appetite to please. 
My reason, the physician to my love, 
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept. 
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve 
Desire is death, which physic did except. 
Past cure I am, now reason is past care, 
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest; 
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are, 
At random from the truth vainly express'd; 

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright. 
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night." 

Would the author, whoever he was, have ventured this 
Sonnet touching the King uncovered? — hence the ante- 
date, the Enigma, the numbering and the cover words. 

Touching the expression, "Desire is death, which 
physic did except," in the Sonnet last quoted, we may say, 
that, upon reaching the Tower, Bacon at once wrote 
Buckingham, saying "Good My Lord: Procure the war- 
rant for my discharge this day. Death, I thank God, is so 
far from being unwelcome to me as I have called for it (as 
Christian resolution would permit), any time these two 
months. But to die before the time of his Majesty's grace 
and in this disgraceful place, is even the worst that could be; 
and when I am dead, he is gone that was always in one 
tenor, a true and perfect servant to his Master and one 
that was never author of any immoderate, no, nor unsafe, 
no (I will say it) not unfortunate counsel." And he closes 



40 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

by saying that while for reformation sake the decision 
was proper "I was the justest Chancellor that hath been 
in the five changes since Sir Nicholas Bacon's time." 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 280. See here Sonnet 71. As 
to the expression "which physic did except" in the 
foregoing Sonnet see p. 213, 241, and 329. Is there any 
other Englishman which these garments will fit, reader? 
The appetite to please, in our last quoted Sonnet was the 
disease which brought to medicine the "healthful state" 
of Sonnet 118 where we have: 

LIKE as, to make our appetites more keen, 
With eager compounds we our palate urge, 
As, to prevent our maladies unseen. 
We sicken to shun sickness when we purge. 
Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness, 
To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding 
And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness 
To be diseased ere that there was true needing. 
Thus policy in love, to anticipate 
The ills that were not, grew to faults assured 
And brought to medicine a healthful state 
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured: 
But thence I learn, and find the lesson true, 
Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you." 

That the author, whoever he was, was not "guilty to 
himself" of any unworthiness, see Sonnet 121. It will be 
given later in Chapter 4. 

Sonnet 66 and one or two others concern the leach 
Buckingham who without law or justice filched from 
Bacon his York House, his valued early home. It is in 
these words: 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 41 

TIRED with all these, for restful death I cry, 
As, to behold desert a beggar born, 

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, 

And purest faith unhappily forsworn. 

And gilded honour shamefully misplaced, 

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, 

And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, 

And strength by limping sway disabled, 

And art made tongue-tied by authority, 

And folly, doctor-like controlling skill. 

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity. 

And captive good attending captain ill; 

Tired with all these, from these would I be gone. 
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone." 

"Love," as used in this Sonnet and in Sonnets 19, 29, 
63, 64, 65, 76, 107 and others, refers to the author's 
philosophy, his felt mission, his Great Instauration already 
touched. "Love," in the Sonnets, concerns chiefly King, 
Queen or philosophy. The context must determine this. 
Philosophy is, at times, by poetic license, addressed as a 
person. See Sonnets 29, 37, 75, 78 and others. We find no 
unlawful love in the Sonnets, nor woman referred to, save 
Queen Elizabeth. 

Returning to the Sonnet we would say, yes, Bacon had 
fallen. Had he also fallen among thieves? See in this 
"Bacon's Letters", Vol. 7, p. 3 10 to 334. See p. 3 13 and 3 14 
as to his promised pardon by both King and Buckingham. 
Through the influence of Buckingham, Williams now 
stopped it at the seal, Buckingham giving Bacon to under- 
stand that York House must first be his. As to Bucking- 
ham's promise of pardon, to Bacon, of the whole sentence, 
we, p. 313, have Bacon's own words for it. He says: "As 



42 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

for that I find, your Lordship knoweth as well as I what 
promises you made me, and iterated them both by message 
and from your mouth, consisting of three things, the par- 
don of the whole sentence, some help for my debts, and an 
annual (pension) which your Lordship ever set at 2000£ 
as obtained, and 3000£ in hope." He then says: "I do 
not think any except a Turk or Tartar would wish to have 
another chop out of me." Having procured the abandon- 
ment of his defense, he was now in their trap. His friends 
advise him to make his words to Buckingham now all of 
"sweetmeats." He no longer had the King's ear, who 
said to Buckingham, "You played an after-game well." 
That "These blenches gave my heart another youth." 
See please Sonnets 110, 119, 123 and 68. From the paper 
touching the promises made him, p. 314, he says: "For 
me, if they judge by that which is past, they judge of the 
weather of this year by an almanack of the old year." 
See later "BickerstafF and the almanack." 

Bacon gives now the King warning in Sonnet 140, and 
says: 

BE wise as thou art cruel; do not press 
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain; 
Lest sorrow lend me words and words express 
The manner of my pity-wanting pain. 
If I might teach thee wit, better it were, 
Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so; 
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near. 
No news but health from their physicians know; 
For if I should despair, I should grow mad. 
And in my madness might speak ill of thee: 
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad, 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 43 

Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be. 
That I may not be so, nor thou belied, 
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go 
wide." 

That Francis Bacon's overthrow was a covert piece 
of work is indicated by the "tongue-tied patience" of this, 
and of Sonnet 66. It appears later from Archbishop 
Tennison's words touching Bacon's troubles, who says: 
"The great cause of his suffering is to many a secret. I 
leave them to find it out by his words to King James. 'I 
wish that as I am the first, so I may be the last of sacrifices 
in your times; and when from private appetite it is re- 
solved that a creature shall be sacrificed, it is easy to pick 
up sticks enough from any thicket, whither it hath 
strayed, to make a fire to offer it with.' " 

Basil Montagu in his "Life and Works of Bacon," 
Vol. 1, p. 99, says: "The obligation to silence imposed 
upon Bacon, extended to his friends after he was in the 
grave." 

Bribery was but the after-game, reader, brought 
forward when Bacon was securely within the trap. He 
was first charged with others as a Referee in a business 
which the King did not purpose to have opened. Bacon 
was preparing to meet this. It was totally abandoned, 
the bribery charges taking its place, as we shall see later 
in Chapter 4, in connection with the "several plot" of that 
subtle Sonnet 137. We would be gratified to know that 
this work of ours might one day become a plank in the 
platform of a society to be reared, to investigate Bacon's 
reform, and said Plot. 

As to the "mad slanderers" touched in the Sonnet last 
quoted, see Sonnet 70. See also Bacon's own words to 



44 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Buckingham concerning them. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, 
p. 296. He here likewise says: "I never took penny for 
releasing any thing I stopped at the seal, I never took 
penny for any commission or things of that nature, I 
never shared with any servant for any second or inferior 
profit. My offences I have myself recorded; wherein 
I studied, as a good confessant, guiltiness and not excuse; 
and therefore I hope it leaves me fair to the King's grace, 
and will turn many men's hearts to me." 

These offences will be found set out at p. 252 to 261. 
Without claiming Bacon to be an angel, make now an 
example of corrupt bribery out of any one of these charges, 
you who can. They never would have been made, nor 
would they have prevailed, reader, had it not been for that 
which lay behind. The true causes involved in the over- 
throw, the rolling in the dirt of this chief pillar of 
Protestantism must yet be told, reader. His suave 
letters and speeches to those whom he well knew were 
seeking his ruin; and made while endeaving to prevent the 
sequestration of his estate have greatly befogged it, as 
have undated, misplaced and garbled papers, as well as 
those purposely withheld or kept out of sight. 

His critics agree that avarice was not his fault, but 
rather liberality. His great secret mission, his Posthumous 
Pocket labors evidently drew heavily, and had for years, 
upon his means. Even after his fall he speaks of "the 
good pens that forsake me not." The gratuities or gifts 
he received came freely from the well to do class; and to 
this time, when the reform set in, had been the custom of 
the Chancellors. This reform became now part of his 
great mission. From Sonnet 48 we judge little could be 
secured from the King, either in aid or protection of his 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 45 

literary work — his "jewels." See in this please our 
"Defoe Period," p. 222 to 225. 

As Bacon would not, during his troubles, disclose his 
feelings to the public, so he talked them into the Sonnets 
here under review, leaving them thus to time. They may, 
in a sense, be regarded as soliloquies. Ever he was re- 
minding himself by notes, as is well known. Sonnet 11 
was one of these self reminders. Are not these Sonnets all 
the same concise talkers in verse, as is his concededly writ- 
ten Sonnet touching Queen Elizabeth given in Chapter I ? 
See p. 18. 

As Dante sang his sorrows in his "Divine Comedy," 
so did Bacon his in these Sonnets. We do not say they 
came to the King's eye, though some of them may have. 
In Sonnet 26 he says: "Till then not show my head 
where thou mayst prove me." Throughout, Bacon's 
writings show a distinctive emphasis upon duty and 
obedience. This emphasis upon duty should be noted in 
the mentioned Sonnet 26, and throughout the plays. 

To the time of his fall he was a believer in the doctrine 
of passive obedience and the divine right of Kings. Fol- 
lowing that event he began vigorously to retailor those 
doctrines. This will graphically appear in his Posthumous 
Pocket labors, as we shall see. When he said following his 
fall, "My story is proud," he but tamely expressed what 
he proclaimed in Sonnets 55 and 107. In Sonnet 55 he 
says his praise shall find room "Even in the eyes of all 
posterity;" and he says Sonnet 107 will be his monument 
"when tombs of brass are spent." Are these Sonnets 
interpreted. Reader? If words mean anything, do not 
Sonnets 88, 89 and 90 portray the overthrow of their 
author, whoever he may have been? 



46 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Returning now to Sonnet 57, given at the opening of 
this Chapter, we invite careful thought to its words: 

"Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you. 
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour 
When you have bid your servant once adieu." 

Are we justified in saying the author, whoever he was, 
here refers to his King as Sovereign, and himself as sub- 
ject? As to watching the clock for him, we quote Bacon 
thus: 

"For the star-chamber business I shall (as you write) 
keep the clock on going, which is hard to do when some- 
times the wheels are too many and sometimes too few." 

As to that distinctive expression, "the bitterness of 
absence sour," Bacon says: "There be (saith the Scrip- 
tures) that turn judgment into wormwood, and surely there 
be also that turn it into vinegar; for injustice maketh it 
bitter and delays make it sour." 

But such proofs; and proofs as to language features, 
can not all be handled in one short work designed to out- 
line the field for research, and they must come later. It 
seems proper, however, to say here, that the vocabulary 
of the Plays and Sonnets furnishes the highest possible 
point in the proofs of Bacon's authorship. While able to 
throw his composition into almost any form, and so carry 
it, he was still unable to conceal his wonderful vocabulary. 
Could the untutored Shaksper have possessed identity of 
vocabulary with the cultured Bacon ? Bacon used but one 
class of words, and these follow ever the line of physics, 
and never metaphysics. He applied the same words to 
mind that he did to matter or material things. He him- 
self says: "Be not troubled about metaphysics. When 



HIS SELF-TOLD OVERTHROW 47 

true physics have been discovered, there will be no 
metaphysics. Beyond the true physics is divinity only." 
He, in tabular methods stayed and fed ever, on ex- 
ternal nature, God's works; and never like Aristotle spun 
theories, or made words, from that evolved from human 
ideation. He never theorized about what is in mind, but 
was ever attentive to the forms or shows of motives. He 
labored in the wilderness, and the plays were his wood- 
notes. He was, indeed, the marvel of the ages. In 
vocabulary, having once placed a word, that was ever his 
word for that place. He used not synonyms for it. In this, 
he never had an equal. This was why, in Sonnet l(i, 
"every word doth almost tell my name." For the reasons 
stated, he was the most objective of all writers, and this 
applies to the Plays and Sonnets, as to his attributed work. 
As in the Plays, he stands behind an assumed, a hyphened 
name, so in the Sonnets he stands behind an Enigma and 
an assumed date; and both name and date are but shields, 
and have stood now as masks, nearly three hundred years. 
Francis Bacon no longer needs these shields, nor should 
they longer befog the intellect. As these title-pages are 
their author's own choice, so should they, we think, re- 
main unchanged. 



CHAPTER III 

FRANCIS bacon's WONDER. HIS TABULAR 
SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY. THAT SOMETHING AB- 
SOLUTELY NEW OF THE SHAKESPEARE SONNET 
59 AND ITS ETERNIZED "tABLES" OF SONNET 
122 AND ITS "great BASES FOR ETERNITY" OF 
SONNETS 124 AND 125; IN OTHER WORDS, HIS 
"noblest BIRTH OF TIME," HIS "nEW BORN 
CHILD." 

WE are to say something new to the reader in this 
chapter, concerning the Baconian philosophy, 
which its critics, have thus far failed to discover; 
as well as to unite that philosophy with those of his 
Shakespeare Sonnets which concern it. We will endeavor 
to open to the student, as well as to interest the general 
reader. We trust the Baconian student will nowhere else 
find so concise an outline of the vital parts of the Baconian 
method. This anatomy should reward any labor he may 
bestow upon this work. 

In earlier pages we have touched to relation the chief 
of those Sonnets which concern the fall of their author, 
whoever he may have been. 

We would here call to relation the chief of those which 
concern that wonder, his tabular system of philosophy; 
and its eternized tables. For ease in apprehending the 
philosophy touched upon in the Sonnets to be reviewed, it 
seems proper at the outset to premise certain central 
thoughts concerning it. 

The Baconian system was in method absolutely new. 
It was based on distinctive "Tables of Discovery." They 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 49 

are important in that all else in the system is based upon 
them. All other systems of philosophy are logical systems, 
and based on arguments. 

This philosophy, though, we are the first to lay the 
claim, took origin in Bacon's investigation of the subject 
of light; which he calls "God's first creature." In his 
subtle doctrine of forms, light is God's first form or law. 

The wonder of the system arose out of disclosures 
which its tables revealed to him, to wit, the forms or laws 
of what he calls "the simple natures;" as heat, cold, rare, 
dense, fluid, solid, light, heavy, etc. 

Referring to these "simple natures," Bacon says: 
"And the truth is that the knowledge of simple natures 
well examined and defined is as light; it gives entrance to 
all the secrets of nature's workshop, and virtually in- 
cludes and draws after it whole bands and troops of works, 
and opens to us the sources of the noblest axioms; and yet 
in itself it is of no great use. So also the letters of the 
alphabet in themselves and apart have no use or meaning, 
yet they are the subject matter, for the composition and 
apparatus of all discourse." 

His great "Alphabet of Nature," his, as yet, undis- 
closed doctrine of forms starts here. Reader. Made he 
letters of the alphabet, or selected ancient fables, represent 
these "simple natures.?" And what about the "sacred 
ceremonies" or Hebrew mysteries? See our "Defoe 
Period," p. 75. He elsewhere calls these "simple natures," 
"surds." He calls them "forms." See Aph. 7, book 
2, of the "New Organ." Yet he says: "Forms are but 
fictions of the human mind, unless you call the laws 
of action by that name." He says: "The form of light is 
the law of light," "the form of heat is the law of heat," 
and so of the other "simple natures," which he says are 



so FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

few, and as an alphabet. While these "simple natures" 
or forms can be revealed only by means of his "Tables of 
Discovery" — now to our point — he nowhere in his 
writings tells how to find any one of them. This was by 
design. This was reserved to his Interpreter and to 
posterity as we will show later from his own words. Had 
he disclosed how to find the forms or laws of the "simple 
natures," this would have disclosed his "Alphabet of 
Nature," and so untimely have revealed his Posthumous 
Pocket labors. These thoughts are new, Reader, and if 
right they show Bacon's new system of induction to have 
been unfairly criticised, without having it. This will 
appear later. 

Its "Tables of Discovery" were to be structured from 
selected particulars of knowledge drawn from a Natural 
History framed after his own peculiar method, and this 
History, was itself to be the first stage of selection. 

Of the two books of his crowning work the "Novum 
Organum," in English words — "New Organ" — the first 
was designed chiefly to purge and prepare the mind for 
the reception of the new method. 

The second book was designed to teach how from 
ordinary and "Prerogative Instances," to structure the 
"Tables of Discovery" alluded to in the Sonnets to be 
reviewed. 

The structure, of the tables, however, was one thing. 
To teach how properly to make use of them, quite another. 
These standing tables, when structured, were their author's 
"Places of Invention." The deer is sooner caught within 
the enclosure of tables, than in the forest at large, of 
Natural History. They hold and frame the mental 
energies to the sought region of discovery. 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 51 

To show now how to make use of these "Tables of 
Discovery," and the disclosures made by them, constitutes 
the true Key to the system. This Key, let it be re- 
membered Bacon called his "Formula of Interpretation." 
This "Formula" was to minister to the reason. 

The Natural History v/as to minister to the sense; the 
"Tables of Discovery" were to minister to the memory; 
and this "Formula of Interpretation," by means of an 
"Ascending and Descending Scale of Axioms," was to 
unfold, in use, the wonder of Bacon's inductive method. 

Touching this third ministration, that is, to the reason, 
Bacon says: "Therefore in the third place we must use 
Induction, true and legitimate induction, which is the 
very Key of Interpretation." 

This Key, the "Formula," when placed, should enter 
the "New Organ" at Aphorism 21 of its second book. 
This it was, which was to be handed on with selection and 
care to posterity undisclosed. This will distinctly appear 
as well in his open, as in his Cypher work. 

By design, this "Formula," this new light, was never 
placed in the Lamp, the "New Organ," as we shall see. It 
was structured as was the "New Organ" itself, for the use 
of an Interpreter. See the closing paragraph of its second 
book. For detailed instructions now to his Interpreter, 
see Basil Montagu's "Life of Bacon," Vol. 2, p. 543 to 
551. We do not find it in Speddings' works. From 
these instructions we quote briefly thus: 

"Let him who comes to interpret thus prepare and 
qualify himself; let him not be a follower of novelty, nor of 
custom or antiquity; neither let him embrace the 
license of contradicting or the servitude of authority. 
Let him not be hasty to affirm or unrestrained in doubting, 
but let him produce everything marked with a certain de- 



52 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

gree of probation. Let hope be the cause of labor to him, 
not of idleness. Let him estimate things not by their 
rareness, difficulty, or credit, but by their real importance. 
Let him manage his private aflPairs under a mask, yet 
with some regard for the provisions of things." 

We here emphasize to the reader, that Bacon's system 
of philosophy was never intended, by him, to subvert or 
take the place of existing methods. In Aph. 128 of his 
"New Organ," book 1, he says: "I frankly declare that 
what I am introducing will be but little fitted for such pur- 
poses as these, since it cannot be brought down to common 
apprehension, save by eflPects and works only." 

It was to be carried forward covertly under a secret 
guidance and control. Its discoveries were from thence 
to be radiated upon society. Later we shall claim to the 
reader that the mentioned "Formula of Interpretation" 
was from the outset the true wonder of the Baconian 
system; and that it was never revealed by Bacon, at least, 
while living. 

This tabular method was, we judge, early in use by 
him, and for a considerable time prior to his attempt to 
apply it to philosophy. We judge the "New Organ" was 
but an attempt to perfect and systematize a method which 
Bacon, as to "the simple natures," had already called into 
use. In a letter to the King, at its publication in October 
1620, he says: "There be two of your council and one 
other bishop of this land that know I have been about 
some such work near thirty years; so I made no haste." 

To indicate the use of this method in his Shakespeare 
plays, as well as in philosophy, we quote the opening words 
of Aph. 127 of his "New Organ," book I, thus: "It may 
also be asked (in the way of doubt rather than objection) 
whether I speak of natural philosophy only, or whether I 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 53 

mean that the other sciences, logic, ethics, and poUtics, 
should be carried on by this method. Now I certainly 
mean what I have said to be understood of them all; and 
as the common logic, which governs by the syllogism, 
extends not only to natural but to all sciences; so does 
mine also, which proceeds by induction, embrace every- 
thing. For I form a history and tables of discovery for 
anger, fear, shame, and the like; for matters political; and 
again for the mental operations of memory, composition 
and division, judgment and the rest; not less than for heat 
and cold, or light, or vegetation, or the like." Touching 
"characters" in the plays, see Bacon's "Phil. Works" 
by Spedding, Vol. 5, p. 20 to 31; and Vol. 4, p. 456 to 476. 

Concerning philosophy, in connection with the theatre, 
Bacon says : " For we regard all the systems of philosophy 
hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought 
out and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical 
worlds." 

His own philosophy he first outlined in a work which 
he entitled, "The Noblest Birth of Time." This birth 
was in his Hamlet "the great baby" yet in its swaddlings 
and was by Bacon's own hand recast or reswaddled, twelve 
different times before its publication in 1620, as the "New 
Organ." It was then out of its swaddlings, and was by 
Bacon called, "my new born child," as we shall see. He 
presented a copy of it to his literary friend Mathews, say- 
ing: "I have now at last taught that child to go, at the 
swaddling whereof you were." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 3, 
p. 256. This undated letter was misplaced by Spedding. 

The purpose of foisting "the great baby" into this 
play — it is not later referred to — was but a touch to indi- 
cate the reform intended. This babe was to tell of the 
actors, the players, through whom it was to be introduced. 



54 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

They are said to be brief abstracts; or chronicles of the 
time, and the time is said to be out of joint. 

Do "the brief abstracts," allude to the "tables?" The 
tables are twice distinctly referred to in Act I. Sc. 5. They 
minister to the memory, as we have seen. In Act 2, Sc. 
2, Hamlet says to Ophelia: "Thine evermore, most dear 
lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet." 

To what "machine," please, can Hamlet here allude? 

When our critic shall have exhausted the wonder of 
his wit in vain to determine, we come thus to his relief. 

In many places in his writings Bacon calls his new 
method a "machine," his "new logical machine." In a 
letter to the King concerning it, he says: "I have con- 
structed the machine but the stuff must be gathered from 
the facts of nature." 

Let, now, the foregoing be considered by the reader, 
but as a brief side-light to this our second vintage on the so 
called Shakespeare Sonnets. 

We would emphasize to him at the outset, that the 
author of the Sonnets, whoever he was, had produced or 
invented something rare, something absolutely new; 
which he calls "a composed wonder" — a child. It was 
surely new, unless the author's brains were beguiled, in 
which case only, it was but a second birth, or "burden." 

To make this point sure to the reader, we quote Sonnet 
59. Its author — was it Shaksper? — says: 

IF there be nothing new, but that which is 
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled. 
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss 
The second burden of a former child ! 
O, that record could with a backward look, 
Even of five hundred courses of the sun, 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 55 

Show me your image in some antique book, 
Since mind at first in character was done! 
That I might see what the old world could say- 
To this composed wonder of your frame; 
Whether we are mended, or whether better they, 
Or whether revolution be the same. 
O, sure I am, the wits of former days 
To subjects worse have given admiring praise." 

In this Sonnet, and throughout the plays, note Bacon's 
distinctive words "invention," "image," "characters," 
"frame," "mended," "revolution," "wits," and his oft 
used expression, "sure I am." To instance in the word 
"image." Bacon says: "Knowledge is the image of 
existence." He says: "Words are but images of thoughts." 
He says : " For all color is the broken image of light." In 
the plays we have, "the image of authority," "the image 
of power," "the image of my cause." Note in this Sonnet 
and in Sonnets 38, 76, 103, and 105, Bacon's ever used 
word " invention " to indicate mental operations. See here 
please, our "Defoe Period," p. 135. Brevity must, how- 
ever, restrain our hand from the language features. We 
here but outline our claim. 

The foregoing Sonnet begins by saying that the 
author's brains are beguiled, if there be not something 
new, something before unknown; and later referred to as 
"a composed wonder;" and indicates a desire that when 
500 years have elapsed, he, the author, might know what 
the world could say of it; and whether he, or "they," — 
the ancients — were best. Shaksper,? ha! 

In the "five hundred courses of the sun" may be noted 
Bacon's distinctive claim that the sun and heavens move 
around the earth as a center, contrary to the accepted 
opinion of astronomers. 



56 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Should the reader prefer now his prejudices to his 
intelligence, and so avoid belief, he had best read no 
farther. 

Into relation with this child — "the composed wonder" 
— of the Sonnet, under review, we introduce Francis 
Bacon's letter to the University of Cambridge, on pre- 
senting to it a copy of his "New Organ," thus: 

"As your son and pupil, I desire to lay in your bosom 
my new-born child. Otherwise I should hold it for a thing 
exposed. Let it not trouble you that the way is new; for 
in the revolutions of time such things must needs be. 
Nevertheless the ancients retain their proper honor — that 
is, of wit and understanding; for faith is due only to the 
Word of God and to experience. Now to bring the sciences 
back to experience is not permitted; but to grow them 
anew out of experience, though laborious, is practicable. 
May God bless you and your studies. Your most loving 
son." "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding Vol. 7, p. 136. 

The foregoing Sonnet in its every detail falls into full 
relation with this letter, item by item. 

As to its alluded to ancients. Bacon says: "Nay it 
doth more fully lay open that the question between me 
and the ancients is not of the virtue of the race, but of the 
tightness of the way." "Bacon's Letters" Vol. 4, p. 137. 
He says: "They knew little antiquity; they knew, except 
fable, not much above five hundred years before them- 
selves." 

As to the "second burden" of the Sonnet, we quote 
him thus: "It may be thought again that I am but doing 
what has been done before; — that the ancients them- 
selves took the same course which I am now taking; and 
that it is likely therefore that I too; after all this stir and 
striving, shall come at last to some one of those systems 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 57 

which prevailed in ancient times." "New Organ" Aph. 
125, book 1. 

We may thus see that Francis Bacon regarded his 
method as absolutely new and unknown to the ancients, 
and in no sense a second birth or burden. To trace its 
origin in Bacon's mind read attentively his "Cupid and 
Caelum." "Phil. Works," Vol. 5, p. 461 to 500, and Vol. 
3, p. 65 to 118. "Composed wonder!" Time has failed 
to yield a written scrap, of Sonnet, Play, or composed 
line, from Shaksper's pen, reader! 

The wonder spoken of in the Sonnet is said to be, "this 
composed wonder of your frame" — nature. 

Is not this in identity what Bacon claimed his "New 
Organ" to be? 

By means of its "Tables of Discovery" it was to focalize 
and reveal the very frame of nature. This Aladdin's 
Lamp, — this search light — turned upon his "Natural 
History" — all nature — was to reveal the true doctrine of 
forms, — the forms of "the simple natures," and from 
thence, as we shall see, his great "Alphabet of Nature." 

Touching forms Bacon says: "To God, truly, the 
Giver and Architect of Forms, and it may be to the angels 
and higher intelligences it belongs to have an affirmative 
knowledge of forms immediately, and from the first con- 
templation. But this assuredly is more than man can do, 
to whom it is granted only to proceed at first by negatives, 
and at last to end in affirmatives, after exclusion has 
been exhausted." "New Organ" Aph. 15, book 2. 

Again, in presenting a copy of the "New Organ" to 
the King, Bacon, as to the things of which it treats, says: 
"Certainly they are quite new; totally new in their very 
kind; and yet they are copied from a very ancient model; 
even the world itself and the nature of things and of the 



58 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

mind. And to say truth, I am wont for my own part to 
regard this work as a child of time rather than of wit; the 
only wonder being that the first notion of the thing, and 
such great suspicions concerning matters long established, 
should have come into any man's mind. All the rest 
follows readily enough. And no doubt there is something 
of accident (as we call it) and luck as well in what men 
think as in what they do or say. But for this accident 
which I speak of, I wish that if there be any good in what 
I have to offer, it may be ascribed to the infinite mercy and 
goodness of God, and to the felicity of your Majesty's 
times; to which as I have been an honest and affectionate 
servant in my life, so after my death I may yet perhaps, 
through the kindling of this new light in the darkness of 
philosophy, be the means of making this age famous to 
posterity; and surely to the times of the wisest and most 
learned of Kings belongs of right the regeneration and 
restoration of the sciences," "Phil. Works," Vol, 4, p, 11. 

Bacon's authorship of the Sonnet under review can 
surely require no further proof than its critical contrast by 
the reader, with his words here given. Note in this letter 
to the King the mentioned rare "wonder." Note that it 
is called a child; that it is totally new; that it was copied 
after the world as a model, or frame. 

"Frame" as applied to nature in the Sonnet is Bacon's 
use. He says: "It is certain that of all powers in nature 
heat is the chief both in the frame of nature and in the 
works of art." As to the emphasis touching nature, we in 
Sonnet 127, have, "each hand hath put on nature's 
power." Bacon says: "Heat and cold are nature's two 
hands." 

In a further letter to the King touching the "New 
Organ," "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 120, he says: "This 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 59 

work is but a new body of day, whereinto your Majesty 
by your countenance and protection, may breath life. 
And to tell your Majesty truly what I think, I account 
your favour may be to this work as much as an hundred 
years' time: for I am persuaded the work will gain upon 
men's minds in ages, but your gracing it may make it 
take hold more swiftly; which I would be glad of, it being 
a work meant not for praise or glory, but for practice, 
and the good of men. One thing, I confess, I am ambitious 
of, with hope, which is, that after these beginnings, and 
the wheel once set on going, men shall suck more truth out 
of Christian pens, than hitherto they have done out of 
heathen." 

These purposes and doings were his, but a few months 
prior to his overthrow. This child was his Miranda, 
which he sought to wed to power. "Defoe Period " 
p. 319 to 346. 

But this "new born child" of his letter is touched 
agam m Sonnet 21, where the author says he does not seek 
to make a "proud compare" of his fair— his child— with 
others. He merely seeks truth in his description. 

What, Reader, was the "child" of Sonnet 124, if not 
the child of philosophy? 

It is in these words: 

TF my dear love were but the child of state, 
A It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd, 
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate. 
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd. 
No, it was builded far from accident; 
It suflfers not in smiling pomp, nor falls 
Under the blow of thralled discontent. 
Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls: 



60 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

It fears not policy, that heretic, 

Which works on leases of short-number'd hours, 

But all alone stands hugely politic, 

That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers. 
To this I witness call the fools of time. 
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime." 

This "thralled discontent," this political unrest, this 
cry for reform, was touched into relation in Chapter 2. 

The author here calls "the fools of time" — his de- 
tractors — to witness that his philosophy, his "dear love" 
was "builded far from accident," and that it falls not 
"under the blow of thralled discontent." True love he 
describes in Sonnet 116. In Sonnet 129 he tells of lust and 
its effects. In Sonnet 115, love, like philosophy, is said 
to be a babe in growth. In the plays he shows how, by 
lust. Kings, Kingdoms, and great persons are brought to 
their ruin. 

As to the love-wooing of philosophy or truth. Bacon 
in his "Essay on Truth," says: "Yet truth which only 
doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth which 
is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, 
which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is 
the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature." 

The author of the Sonnets subsequent to his fall cen- 
tered his heart, his life, his "dear love" upon "thee" his 
child of philosophy, as may be clearly seen in Sonnet 37, 
where we have: 

AS a decrepit father takes delight 
To see his active child do deeds of youth. 
So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite. 
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. 
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 61 

Or any of these all, or all, or more. 

Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit, 

I make my love engrafted to this store: 

So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised. 

Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give 

That I in thy abundance am sufficed 

And by a part of all thy glory live. 

Look, what is best, that best I wish in thee; 

This wish I have; then ten times happy me!" 

Let "unfather'd" in the previously quoted; and 
"decrepit father," in this Sonnet, be called to relation 
with their author's fall. Note Bacon's use of the words 
"shadow," and "substance," in this, in Sonnet 53, and 
throughout his attributed writings. 

Again, "Haply, I think on thee," see Sonnet 29. 

As to the distinctive use of the word "lame," in the 
previously quoted Sonnet we quote Bacon thus: "For 
(gracious Sovereign) if still, when the waters are stirred, 
another shall be set before me, your Majesty had need 
work a miracle, or else I shall be still a lame man to do 
your service." 

Upon the publication of his "New Organ" in October 
1620, criticism at once began at Rome, as elsewhere, con- 
cerning it. His great rival. Coke, said: "It is fit only for 
a ship of fools." The King said: "It is like the peace of 
God, it passeth all understanding." And what became of 
Father Redemptus Baranzano's letter to Bacon concerning 
it? See "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 374 to 380, and 367 
to 370. Had Bacon later a right to say to his literary 
friend Toby Mathews "And thou too O Brutus?" What 
motive lay behind his extensive garbling of Bacon's 
letters to him, blurring in them both names of persons 



62 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

and events which they concern ? This will be touched later 
in Chapter 4. 

After Bacon had endured his eclipse — his fall — see 
what he says in Sonnet 107. 

Having now touched to relation the "New Organ," as 
a whole, in Sonnet 59, and others, we here turn to its 
"tables" in Sonnet 122, where we have: 

THY gift, thy tables, are within my brain 
Full character'd with lasting memory. 

Which shall above that idle rank remain 

Beyond all date, even to eternity; 

Or at the least, so long as brain and heart 

Have faculty by nature to subsist; 

Till each to razed oblivion yield his part 

Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd. 

That poor retention could not so much hold. 

Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score; 

Therefore to give them from me was I bold. 

To trust those tables that receive thee more: 
To keep an adjunct to remember thee 
Were to import forgetfulness in me." 

As already stated. Bacon believed that only God, or 
possibly the higher intelligences, could have a knowledge 
of forms without aid of "Tables of Discovery." Does he 
mean to intimate that he may have this gift, in the fore- 
going Sonnet, and in the following? He says: "For 
Plato casteth his burden [see "second burden" in our 
quoted Sonnet 59] and saith that he will revere him as a 
God, that can truly divide and define; which cannot be 
but by true forms and differences. Wherein I join hands 
with him, confessing as much, as yet, assuming to myself 
little; for if any man can by the strength of his anticipations 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 63 

find out forms, I will magnify him with the foremost. But 
as any of them would say that if divers things which many 
men know by instruction and observation another knew 
by revelation and without those means, they would take 
him for somewhat supernatural and divine; so I do 
acknowledge that if any man can by anticipations reach 
to that which a weak and inferior wit may attain to by 
interpretation, he cannot receive too high a title." "Phil. 
Works," Vol. 3, p. 239. 

Note "as yet assuming to myself little." 

The "Tables of Discovery," as already stated, were to 
minister to the memory. And so, the author in the Sonnet 
under review, says the "tables are within my brain;" that 
they are "full character'd with lasting memory;" that his 
poor retention could not hold them; and therefore he was 
bold to give them forth. He says until both brain and 
heart, as well as the "tables," — note "till each" have 
yielded their part of him; his record never can be missed. 
He says he does not need "tallies" — tables — to score the 
love of the giver of them. 

And was it Shaksper whose name was to be dis- 
tinguished and eternized by "tables.?" and if Shaksper, 
what tables? 

The author says they place him "above that idle 
rank" — those who had sought his ruin. Their enmity is 
directly alluded to in Sonnet 55, wherein the author like- 
wise says his record shall live until a true judgment of him- 
self is made. He says: 

NOT marble, nor the gilded monuments 
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; 
But you shall shine more bright in these contents 
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time. 



64 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

When wasteful war shall statues overturn, 
And broils root out the work of masonry, 
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn 
The living record of your memory. 
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity 
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room 
Even in the eyes of all posterity 
That wear this world out to the ending doom. 
So, till the judgment that yourself arise, 
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes." 

The words "you," "your," "yourself," in this Sonnet 
are cover words wherein the author alludes to himself, as 
will appear from our 7th Division of the Sonnets. 

Are not the last two Sonnets in direct line with the 
words of Sir Francis Bacon who says: "I have raised up a 
light in the obscurity of philosophy which will be seen 
centuries after I am dead." 

For the benefit of those not familiar with Bacon's 
philosophic writings, we would say, that his system, his 
Great Instauration, was outlined in six parts. As but four 
of them were developed, these only need be considered by 
the student. 

His "Advancement of Learning," was subsequent to 
his fall, recast and enlarged and was published in 1623 
as the "De Augmentis," and as such, was made the 1st 
part of the Instauration. The "New Organ" was the 2nd 
part. His "Natural History" was the 3rd. The 4th part 
was his method of operating the "Tables of Discovery" 
by aid of the mentioned "Formula" or Key; which was 
for the use of an Interpreter, as already stated. In the 
closing paragraph itself of the "New Organ" we have 
"The rest need not be inquired into till we come to 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 65 

make Tables of Presentation for the work of the Inter- 
preter concerning some particular nature." To find the 
"simple natures" he must first have "the Formula," the 
Key. 

To show now that the whole system was subservient 
to the "Tables of Discovery" we quote from Aph. 92 of 
the "New Organ," book 1, thus: "And though the strong- 
est means of inspiring hope will be to bring men to parti- 
culars; especially to particulars digested and arranged in 
my Tables of Discovery (the subject partly of the second, 
but much more of the fourth part of my Instauration) 
since this is not merely the promise of the thing but the 
thing itself." 

Had Mr. Spedding called the mentioned Key or 
"Formula of Interpretation" into relation with Chapters 
1 and 2 of book 6 of the "De Augmentis," which chapters 
concern the "Handing on of the Lamp or Method of 
Delivery to Posterity;" this would have placed the 
Baconian system in its true light, by informing the critics 
that the Interpreter of the "New Organ" and "the sons of 
science" must first have the "Formula;" which should 
enter its second book at Aph. 21; and which concerns the 
"Ascending and Descending scale of Axioms," or the dis- 
closures, in the use, of the "Tables of Discovery." 

To show now that the "Formula of Interpretation" 
which was to be reserved from publication was the very 
key to Bacon's new inductive method we quote him thus: 
"Now the popular induction (from which the proofs of 
principles themselves are attempted) is but a puerile toy, 
concluding at random, and perpetually in risk of being 
exploded by contradictory instances: insomuch that the 
dialecticians seem never once to have thought of the sub- 
ject in earnest, turning from it in a sort of disdain, and 



66 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

hurrying on to other things. Meantime this is manifest, 
that the conclusions which are attained by any species of 
induction are at once both discovered and attested, and 
do not depend on axioms and middle truths, but stand on 
their own weight of evidence, and require no extrinsic 
proof. Much more then is it necessary that those axioms 
which are raised according to the true form of induction, 
should be of self-contained proof, surer and more solid 
than what are termed principles themselves; and this kind 
of induction is what we have been wont to term the formula 
of interpretation." Basil Montagu's "Life of Bacon," Vol. 
2, p. 555. 

To show now that Sir Francis Bacon intended to reserve 
this Key or "Formula of Interpretation" from the public 
to a private succession, we from an article concerning the 
publication of his writings entitled, "The Interpretation of 
Nature" quote thus: 

"Now for my plan of publication — those parts of the 
work which have it for their object to find out and bring 
into correspondence such minds as are prepared and dis- 
posed for the argument, and to purge the floors of men's 
understandings, I wish to be published to the world and 
circulate from mouth to mouth, the rest I would have 
passed from hand to hand, with selection and judgment. 
Not but I know that it is an old trick of impostors to keep 
a few of their follies back from the public which are indeed 
no better than those they put forward: but in this case it is 
no imposture at all, but a sober foresight, which tells me 
that the formula itself of interpretation and the dis- 
coveries made by the same, will thrive better if committed 
to the charge of some fit and selected minds and kept 
private." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 3, p. 87. Should the 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 67 

reader have a doubt here see Bacon's "Phil. Works," by 
Spedding, Vol. 1, p. 107 to 113. 

It is thus manifest from Francis Bacon's own words, 
that this "Formula," the Key to his new method, which, 
as we have seen, was to minister to the reason, was to re- 
main unpublished in the hands of a select few. We say, 
with the "Sons of Science" of his "New Atlantis." 

The failure to recognize the significance of this Key or 
"Formula," to the system, and the misdating and mis- 
placing the papers, which concern it, have confused and 
belittled the entire system. Its critics have thus pro- 
nounced upon a new system of philosophy with its wonder, 
its head-light, in abeyance. And so we have "Bacon did 
not know." "Bacon did not comprehend." "Bacon did 
not realize." 

Mr. Spedding placed this undated paper as if written 
in 1603. See please his reasons, or rather his want of rea- 
sons for so placing it. Would one prepare for the general 
publication of his writings before producing them ? 

Like the "De Augmentis" it was translated into 
Latin, not done with his early works. It may have been 
originally designed as an introduction to it, or to the 
"New Organ." It has all of the ear-marks of having 
been written subsequent to the "New Organ." It con- 
cerns the publication of Bacon's writings to posterity. The 
part quoted will be found in the already mentioned 
article giving instructions to his Interpreter. There, as 
in the "New Atlantis," the Interpreter is called "my son," 
and the "Formula" is referred to thus: "One bright and 
radiant light of truth, my son, must be placed in the 
midst, which may illuminate the whole, and in a moment 
dispel all error." In the "New Atlantis," Bacon says: 
"God bless thee my son; I give thee the greatest jewel I 



68 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

have," referring thus to the basis of his new system. To 
this "jewel" we shall later have occasion to refer when 
we reach Sonnet 65. 

As stated, to find and use the "simple natures" was 
the business of the "Formula" or Key. We are here at 
the point in the Baconian system where "Indirection 
must find direction out." 

To discover now the law or form of "a simple nature" 
as of light, was by Bacon called "The freeing of a direc- 
tion," to find it, as will appear in Aph. 4 and 10 of book 2 
of the "New Organ." 

"The freeing of a direction" to find the form! We are 
here at the threshold of Bacon's Wonder, his new induc- 
tion; his "Noblest Birth of Time." This was the setting 
up of his "mark of knowledge," by the placing of "the 
white." "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 126. 

Neither in the "New Organ," nor in any place in 
Bacon's writings does he give a single example or at- 
tempt to describe this process — "the freeing of a direc- 
tion" — to find the form of a "simple nature" save in one 
of the mentioned misplaced fragments known as "Valerius 
Terminus, or The Interpretation of Nature." He here 
distinctly informs the reader, however, that he does not 
purpose to reveal his method. By misplacing this paper 
his critics have concluded that he abandoned his inten- 
tion. It has no date. Mr. Spedding has placed it as if 
written before 1605. See his reasons, or want of reasons, 
for so placing it. "Phil. Works," Vol. 3, p. 201 to 213. 
The wonders of the "Formula" are referred to at p. 247. 
The paper itself opens at p. 217. 

On page 236, Bacon is investigating the subject of 
light and colors, and notably "the freeing of a direction" 
leading to the form of light. He here distinctly informs 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 69 

the reader that he does not intend to reveal his method. 
He says: "Now are you freed from air, but still you are 
tied to transparent bodies. To ascend further by scale I 
do forbear, partly because it would draw on the example 
to an over great length, but chiefly because it would open 
that which in this work I determine to reserve; for to pass 
through the whole history and observation of colors and 
objects visible were too long a digression; and our purpose 
is now to give an example of a free direction, thereby to 
distinguish and describe it; and not to set down a form of 
interpretation how to recover and attain it. But as we 
intend not now to reveal so we are circumspect not to mis- 
lead; and therefore (this warning being given) returning 
to our purpose in hand, we admit the sixth direction to be 
that all bodies or parts of bodies which are unequal equally, 
that is in a simple proportion, do represent whiteness; we 
will explain this, though we induce it not. It is then to be 
understood, that absolute equality produceth transpar- 
ence, inequality in simple order or proportion produceth 
whiteness, inequality in compound or respective order or 
proportion produceth all other colors, and absolute or 
orderless inequality produceth blackness; which diversity, 
if so gross a demonstration be needful, may be signified 
by four tables; a blank, a chequer, a fret, and a medley; 
whereof the fret is evident to admit great variety." 

The foregoing is but a more extended view of the sub- 
ject but touched in the "New Organ" in Aph. 22 and 23 
of book 2. And see "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 361. Note 
here the subject of "inequality." Bacon says; "For 
such orderly inequality is in truth the daughter of the 
heavens and mother of generation." That the discovery 
of the configuration of bodies is as new a thing as the 



70 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

discovery of forms; and taught by an absolutely new 
method. See Aph. 7, 8 and 9 of book 2 of the "New 
Organ." 

Thus from his own words may we see that Francis 
Bacon did not intend to disclose how to obtain a knowl- 
edge of the laws or forms of "the simple natures." That 
there may be now no escape from this conclusion, see 
please "Phil Works," Vol. 4, p. 29 and 262; and Vol. 5, p. 
135. 

This was to be supplied to the "New Organ" at Aph. 
21 of book 2, by the reserved "Formula of Interpreta- 
tion," as already stated. 

In the prior Aph. 20, it should be noted, that trials to 
interpret by means of the tabular examples given, were; 
not to be by the "Formula," but by what Bacon calls the 
mere "Indulgence of the Understanding." These points 
we present for the benefit of the student of the system. 

The "Tables of Discovery" should not be thought 
merely to reveal "forms." They are their author's places 
of invention. They unfold, as well, knowledge of "the con- 
figuration of bodies," and scintillate generally with in- 
formation. Their business is to investigate the concrete 
to learn its disclosures — the abstract. The concrete is ever 
but the vehicle of the form. The laws of nature are all 
unseen. These tables are the "children" of Sonnet 11 
which "nursed" take a new acquaintance of the mind. 

The "simple natures" are forms of the 1st class and so 
concern Metaphysics and the Alphabet. Forms of the 
2nd class are compound forms and concern Physics only. 
See Aph. 7, 8 and 9, of book 2 of the "New Organ." 
With those of the 1st class are we concerned in this work. 
When found they ease the opening of the 2nd class. 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 71 

Never, for a moment, from the issue of his "Noblest 
Birth of Time" does Bacon appear to have lost faith in his 
method. He informs the reader, however, in many 
places in his writings, that there are no common grounds 
upon which to contrast his tabular method with those 
extant. And he says: "Even to deliver and explain what 
I bring forward is no easy matter; for things in themselves 
new will yet be apprehended with reference to the old." 

Both Mr. Spedding and Mr. Ellis have so apprehended 
it. Mr. Ellis says: "For that his method is impracticable 
cannot I think be denied, if we reflect not only that it 
never has produced any result, but also that the process 
by which scientific truths have been established cannot 
be so presented as even to appear to be in accordance with 
it." "Phil. Works" Vol. 1, p. 38. 

Mr. Spedding, same work, Vol. 3, p. 171, says: "His 
peculiar system of philosophy, — that is to say, the peculiar 
method of investigation, the 'organum,' the 'formula,' 
the 'clavis,' the 'ars ipsa interpretandi naturam,' the 
'filum Labyrinthi,' or by whichever of its many names we 
choose to call that artificial process by which alone he 
believed that man could attain a knowledge of the laws 
and a command over the powers of nature, — of this 
philosophy we can make nothing. If we have not tried it, 
it is because we feel confident that it would not answer. 
We regard it as a curious piece of machinery, very subtle, 
elaborate, and ingenious, but not worth constructing, be- 
cause all the work it could do may be done more easily 
another way. But though this, the favorite child of 
Bacon's genius which he would fain have made heir of all 
he had, died thus in the cradle, his genius itself still lives 
and works among us; whatever brings us into nearer com- 
munion with that is still interesting, and it is as a product 



72 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

and exponent of Bacon's own mind and character that the 
Baconian philosophy, properly so called, retains its chief 
value for modern men." 

And thus, its Head-light, the "Formula," in abeyance; 
and with vital parts misplaced, is the work of the greatest 
genius of the ages swept to the ash pit, as by a wave of the 
hand. 

As in the work of critics, the first makes the road, so 
the rest meekly tread therein. Having admitted his 
inability to open the system, Mr. Spedding then pro- 
nounces it worthless, saying its work may be done more 
easily another way. From this kind of criticism we feel it 
our duty to dissent. This is Shaksperian. 

We have here an admirable illustration of Bacon's 
own words who says: "It is the custom of the human 
mind, when it either does not comprehend a subject, or 
has not the ability to comprehend it, to at once place itself 
above, or to ignore it." 

Do any of Bacon's critics know, or pretend to know, 
the contents of his "Formula of Interpretation" which he 
so carefully reserved to a private succession ? Hence this 
new system of induction has been so criticised, without 
having it, as not only to belittle its author, but to stay all 
further interest in or concerning it. His critics have had 
but the Lamp, the "New Organ," into which as a light, it 
was to enter. 

Had Bacon, in his own day, made public this Key, the 
"Formula," or the knowledge how to find "the simple 
natures" it would have revealed untimely the "Alphabet" 
and so his secret scheme for posterity, as well as to have 
endangered his own life. He himself says: "But I ac- 
count the use that a man should seek of the publication 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 73 

of his own writings before his death, to be an untimely 
anticipation of that which is proper to follow a man, and 
not to go along with him." 

The earmarks of secrecy are spread throughout Bacon's 
philosophic writings; and brood over every egg in the nest 
of Sonnets here under review. 

Having by reason of the misplaced parts, like others 
floundered in the open sea, as to method; we delight thus 
to relieve the future student, and soon to indicate the true 
place of entrance to the Baconian system, which hitherto 
has not been done. 

Fearing the "New Organ" might be lost by his un- 
timely death, as Bacon himself tells us, he caused it to 
be published while yet incomplete. The undated, mis- 
placed parts were surely written subsequent to it; and 
were but further aid in the opening of it, and of his designs 
concerning it. Thus far these undated parts have been 
treated as abandoned fragments, and as if written prior 
to 1605. They were written in Latin. This was not 
done with Bacon's early work, and if abandoned, why so 
print them ? 

They show that the already mentioned Key, or 
"Formula of Interpretation" which was to minister to the 
reason was not to be made public, but was to be reserved 
to a private succession. They show detailed instructions 
to the Interpreter. They distinctly show that Bacon was 
not yet ready to reveal his method of finding the "simple 
natures." 

Save the mentioned juvenile work, "The Noblest 
Birth of Time," and the "Advancement of Learning" pub- 
lished in 1605; little we judge was written by Bacon on 
philosophy, save the "New Organ," prior to his fall in 
1621. The different parts of his "Natural History," in- 



74 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

eluding his "Silva Silvarum," were all written, as was his 
"New Atlantis," subsequent to that event. The different 
parts of his "Natural History," when brought into rela- 
tion, were to be he tells us "The Mother History." This 
History he called "the bosom to philosophy." The "New 
Organ," the babe, in Hamlet, was to draw "natures sweet 
milk, philosophy" from that bosom — from that History, 
reader. This philosophy, though we are the first to lay 
the claim, takes its origin in Bacon's investigation of 
light, which he calls "God's first creature." So in his 
subtle doctrine of forms, light is God's first form or law. 
His example of "freeing a direction" to find that law or 
form we have already touched at p. 68. 

Concerning the subject of light. Bacon held distinctive 
views. He says: "To descend from spiritual and in- 
tellectual, to sensible and material forms; we read the first 
created form was light." He says: "For neither in 
perspective nor otherwise has any inquiry been made 
about Light which is of any value. The radiations of 
it are handled, not the origins. But it is the placing of 
perspective among the mathematics that has caused this 
defect, and others of the kind; for thus a premature de- 
parture has been made from Physics. Again the manner 
in which Light and its causes are handled in Physics is 
somewhat superstitious, as if it were a thing half way 
between things divine and things natural; insomuch that 
some of the Platonists have made it older than matter 
itself; asserting upon a most vain notion that when space 
was spread forth it was filled first with light, and after- 
wards with body; whereas the Holy Scriptures distinctly 
state that there was a dark mass of heaven and earth before 
light was created." "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 403. These 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 75 

distinctive views as to light, and its origin, will be found in 
identity when we reach Milton in Chapter 4. 

It may thus be seen that Bacon considered light as he 
did other parts of operating nature. 

He begins his investigation in transparent bodies. He 
moves at once to whiteness, which is the union of all colors, 
by an orderly change in the configuration of their particles 
as by pounding glass, or whipping water to a foam. 

This orderly inequality, or configuration, is taught in 
his 27 Prerogative Instances. What relation if any exists 
between them and the "Alphabet?" As a Prerogative 
Instance, as of heat, is the controlling instance, is it not 
also the form? And so of the rest. This emphasis con- 
cerning the "Alphabet" will be found important later 
on in Chapter 5. 

The 1st Prerogative Instance called the "Solitary 
Instance," begins with light, or a transparent body, and 
the system opens here in uncolored substance. What 
wonder lies in colors. If you remove all color from a 
body, what do you to the body? "All color is but the 
broken image of light," says Bacon. We will touch Bacon 
on "Substance" when we reach Milton. 

Having now in Sonnet 59 and others touched to rela- 
tion the "New Organ;" and in Sonnet 122 its tables; we 
here in Sonnets 52 and 65 touch "Time's Best Jewel" its 
"Formula," or Key. In Sonnet 52 the author says: 

SO am I as the rich, whose blessed key 
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure. 
The which he will not every hour survey, 
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure. 
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, 
Since, seldom coming, in the long year set, 



76 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Like stones of worth they thinly placed are, 
Or captain jewels in the carcanet. 
So is the time that keeps you as my chest, 
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, 
To make some special instant special blest, 
By new unfolding his imprison'd pride. 

Blessed are you, whose worthiness gives scope, 
Being had, to triumph, being lack'd, to hope." 

Touching this "robe," mantle, or garment of the mind, 
and the retailoring of it, we shall later have something to 
say in Chapter 5. In the "Pilgrim's Progress" poem we 
touch this garment thus: 

"The prophets used much by metaphors 
To set forth truth: yea, who so considers 
Christ, his apostles too, shall plainly see 
That truths to this day in such mantles be." 

In the "Holy War" poem : 

"Nor do thou go to work without my Key, 
In mysteries men soon do lose their way." 

As to "garment" Bacon says: "Behavior is as a gar- 
ment and it has all of the conditions of a garment." Again, 
"For behavior is but a garment, and it is easy to make a 
comely garment for a body that is itself well-proportioned, 
whereas a deformed body can never be so helped by tailor's 
art but the counterfeit will appear." The "tailor's art" 
will be touched later. 

When Sonnet 65, next quoted, was written. Bacon 
doubtless remained as yet uncertain how to bear this 
"Formula," this new Hght — "Time's best jewel" — 
securely to posterity. It is in these words: 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 11 

SINCE brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, 
But sad mortality o'ersways their power, 
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, 
Whose action is no stronger than a flower? 
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out 
Against the wreckful siege of battering days, 
When rocks impregnable are not so stout. 
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays? 
O fearful meditation ! where, alack. 
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid? 
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back? 
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid ? 
O, none, unless this miracle have might, 
That in black ink my love may still shine bright." 

"The verses of a poet endure without a syllable lost," 
says Bacon. 

The mentioned Key — "Time's best jewel" — the "For- 
mula," was later, we think, securely placed and will yet be 
recovered. Note "Time's chest" in Sonnets 48, 52, and 
65. The Key was not yet in it. See Sonnet 65. 

The author's jewels were his literary works. They in 
Sonnet 48 are said to have been trifles to the King, yet to 
the author his greatest comfort. After his fall — "mine 
only care." His love for them kept him living. See 
Sonnet 66. 

This "care" gave efforts to protect himself, and them 
from "confounding age's cruel knife" as indicated in 
Sonnets 19, 63, and 64. In Sonnet 63 he says: 

AGAINST my love shall be, as I am now. 
With Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'erworn; 
When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow 
With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn 



78 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Hath travell'd on to age's steepy night, 

And all those beauties whereof now he's king 

Are vanishing or vanish'd out of sight, 

Stealing away the treasure of his spring; 

For such a time do I now fortify 

Against confounding age's cruel knife. 

That he shall never cut from memory 

My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life: 
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen. 
And they shall live, and he in them still green." 

That the author's beauty inheres in his doings, his 
works, appears in the Sonnet under review, where we have: 

"His beauty shall in these black lines be seen, 
And they shall live, and he in them still green." 

Both the lover's "beauty" and the lover's "life" are 
here touched. We have his "robe" of beauty in Sonnet 
52, which the Key is to open. In this "robe" would he be 
"beauty's pattern to succeeding men" — Sonnet 19. The 
Key was the summit of his art. 

In the mentioned paper reserving this "Formula" 
from publication. Bacon says: "And from the injuries of 
time I am almost secure; but from the injuries of men I 
am not concerned." He in Sonnet 11 reminds himself of 
the flight of time, and urges himself anew to his tabular 
work; and new children of the brain. Note this "continual 
haste" in Sonnet 123. But how was Francis Bacon al- 
most secure from "the injuries of time?" We answer — 
"Time's chest." But the Key, the "Formula" was not in 
it, at the writing of Sonnet 65. Was it ever in the "chest?" 
When found will it tell where the "chest" is? To tell 
where the Key, the "Formula" may be found, will be our 
chief business in Chapter 5. 



HIS COMPOSED WONDER 79 

In the foregoing, we trust we have performed what 
will some day be found a true and healthful service to the 
Baconian philosophy, as well as to have rendered to the 
reader just grounds for the belief that its "Formula of 
Interpretation" was "Time's best jewel" of Sonnet 65; 
and that this jewel remains yet in abeyance, and that the 
system as such must so remain until its recovery, or until 
some like genius, by aid of existing parts, is able to pene- 
trate the veil. 

When the head of this Posthumous has been secured and 
placed, then, and not till then, may critics rightfully 
pronounce detractions concerning it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FRANCIS bacon's SHAKE-SPEARE ; THE **NOTED 

weed" of sonnet 76. his sonnet sentinels. 

NEW light upon HIS OVERTHROW. HIS POSTHU- 
MOUS POCKET LABORS. CARLYLE WAIFS FROM 
THE BACON BUDGET. ELIZABETh's RIGHTFUL 
HEIR. IN CONCEALMENT AFTER 1626. WAS 
COVERT SECRETARY TO CROMWELL AND THE 
INDEPENDENTS IN THEIR GREAT STRUGGLE. HIS 
"holy war," "pilgrim's PROGRESS," "mILTON." 

IN the foregoing Chapters, we have endeavored to 
hold back the Shake-speare cover, in order that the 
reader may view Francis Bacon, the real author, in that 
scholastic dress, his Shakespeare Sonnets; where, in his 
own chosen words, he relates, in part, his covert story 
to posterity. Why he chose to bring forth portions of 
his work under a cover, or as a Dark Author, involves 
motives we need not consider here. We leave the reader 
himself to determine what he meant by his words when 
he said, "I have (though in a despised weed) procured 
the good of all men." 

Lauding his assumed, his hyphened name, himself 
behind the mask. Bacon says: 

"I, therefore, — will begin; — Soul of the age. 
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage. 
My Shakespeare, rise!" 

Where says he this.? In his Ben Jonson poem in- 
troductory to his Plays, where, to his mask, he likewise 
says: 

"Triumph, my Britain! thou hast one to show, 
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. 
He was not of an age, but for all time!" 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 81 

Reader, carefully note here the subtle and significant 
words to his Shake-speare, "Thou hast one to show," 
not yourself, no, but the "He" behind you, the "He" 
to whom all homage is due, the real author, "our ever 
living poet" mentioned in the Enigma on the title page 
of the Sonnets — Bacon himself. 

Lauding but his mask, Bacon here preserved his man- 
ners in not openly praising himself. How "with man- 
ners" he may do this, he indicates in Sonnet 39 by cover 
word pronouns, where we have: 

"O, how thy worth with manners may I sing, 
When thou art all the better part of me? 
What can mine own praise to mine own self bring.? 
And what is't but mine own when I praise thee?" 

Following his fall, Bacon criticises himself sharply 
in Sonnet 62 for this self-laudation, this "self-love." He 
says: 

SIN of self-love possesseth all mine eye 
And all my soul and all my every part; 

And for this sin there is no remedy, 

It is grounded inward in my heart. 

Methinks no face so gracious is as mine. 

No shape so true, no truth of such account; 

And for myself mine own worth do define, 

As I all other in all worths surmount. 

But when my glass shows me myself indeed, 

Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity. 

Mine own self-love quite contrary I read; 

Self so self-loving were iniquity. 

'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise. 
Pointing my age with beauty of thy days." 



82 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Are not the words of this Sonnet, "no truth of such 
account," in full accord with the author's great philos- 
ophic system? See Sonnet 59, 122, 124 and 125. Who- 
ever he may have been he surely employed a secret 
method in referring to himself. This will appear in our 
7th Division of the Sonnets. By use of the word "my- 
self" in the foregoing Sonnet the author discloses his 
method. "Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise." 

We come now to the Two Sentinels which for nearly 
three centuries have guarded this Golden Fleece. They 
double lock the door. We refer to the 1609 title-page of 
the Sonnets; and to the, as yet, unsolved Enigma sub- 
scribed T. T. appearing later thereon. This Enigma was 
not found upon the original entry at the stationers; 
hence the inference. It is now their only title-page; the 
1609 date being dropped altogether. 

Careful study of their relations, if their words mean 
anything, makes it certain, see Sonnet 111, 118, 119, 125, 
88, 89, 90 and others, that the 1609 entry at the Sta- 
tioners was either an unauthorized entry; or a most 
adroit device for future use. As we now have them, they 
were not in print prior to Bacon's fall in 1621. An edition 
using the old title-page, or entry, may, it is true, have 
been made to take the place of the original entry. An 
unauthorized use of title-pages at about this period, as 
well upon some of the plays, as upon other writings, was 
common. "Discovery sooner emerges from error than 
from confusion" — says Bacon. His ever present motives 
for concealment will appear later. 

The mentioned Enigma has defied thus far any 
sanctioned interpretation, though much energetic ink has 
been bestowed upon it. The labored question seems to 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 83 

have been, who was its "Mr. W. H?" It is in these 

words: 

"TO THE ONLIE BEGETTER OF 

THESE INSUING SONNETS 

MR. W. H. ALL HAPPINESSE 

AND THAT ETERNITIE 

PROMISED BY 

OUR EVER-LIVING POET 

WISHETH 

THE WELL-WISHING 

ADVENTURER IN 

SETTING 

FORTH 

T. T." 

For reasons appearing later in Sonnet 81, we say to 
the reader the eternity here promised, was to Mr. W. 
Himself, using the letter W for the christian name of the 
mask, instead of the last, with "H" or the cover word pro- 
noun Himself, and thus used, the better to tangle the 
sense, or deepen the Enigma. 

W is the only letter of the alphabet formed from two 
letters, U and U, two equals. It is both a co-equal, and a 
concordant one. In union they are the U U, the two in 
one, the single one. They are "He" Himself to whom all 
homage is due in the Ben Jonson poem. When in Sonnet 
39 the author inquires how "with manners" he may 
praise himself and his mission, we here see how, in fact, 
his subtlety performed it. 

Instead of saying Mr. W. S. (William Shakespeare) we 
have "Mr. W." (that is U. U.) "Himself," the pronoun 
cover word "Himself" standing in the couplet for both 
author and mask, in conformity with our 7th Division of 
the Sonnets. Bacon and his nom de plume, his mask, let 



84 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

it be remembered, stood in a couplet. They were the 
"co-supremes," and the "concordant one," wherein — 

"So they lov'd, as love in twain 
Had the essence but in one; 
Two distincts, division none: 
Number there in love was slain." 

Taken from "The Phoenix and Turtle" the poem 
with which the Shakespeare writings are brought to con- 
clusion. See Hudson's Shakespeare Vol. lip. 238. 

The 154 covert tell-tales, or tom-tits, set forth under 
the Enigma, are, however, the royal nest eggs of their 
true author, over which time still sits on brood. 

That the promise, in the Enigma, of "Our ever living 
poet" Bacon, to his mask, his Shakespeare, was fulfilled 
to the letter, see Sonnet 81; where Bacon yields to him 
not only the honored epitaph and monument, due to 
himself; but pronounces both in faithful laudation, thus: 

OR I shall live your epitaph to make. 
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten; 
From hence your memory death cannot take, 
Although in me each part will be forgotten. 
Your name from hence immortal life shall have, 
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die: 
The earth can yield me but a common grave, 
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie. 
Your monument shall be my gentle verse. 
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read. 
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse 
When all the breathers of this world are dead; 
You still shall live — such virtue hath my pen — 
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of 
men. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 85 

Reader, is the Enigma interpreted? Was not "that 
eternity promised" in it, to "Mr. W. H." fulfilled to the 
letter, in this Sonnet 81 ? It tells the reader, if language 
means anything, that there are two persons concerned 
in it; that one of the persons is to have but a common 
grave; and that it is the pen of the one who is to have but 
the common grave, that makes the monument for the 
other; and this whether or not he lives to make his 
epitaph. 

To make sure now to the reader that a couplet, or two 
persons are concerned in it, we further quote Sonnet 36: 

LET me confess that we two must be twain, 
Although our undivided loves are one: 
So shall those blots that do with me remain 
Without thy help by me be borne alone. 
In our two loves there is but one respect, 
Though in our lives a separable spite. 
Which though it alter not love's sole effect, 
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight. 
I may not evermore acknowledge thee, 
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, 
Nor thou with public kindness honour me, 
Unless thou take that honour from thy name: 
But do not so; I love thee in such sort 
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report." 

Sonnet 39 should be here read, touching this couplet, 
as should the already mentioned "Phoenix and Turtle." 
By aid of his mask Bacon held aloft his name to a future 
day, well knowing if he assumed immediate authorship, 
following his fall, it must of necessity bring ruin, not only 
upon the prepared, but upon his yet to be prepared, 
labors for posterity. In Sonnet 55 he promises himself 



86 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

immortality in fame, when a true judgment of himself 
has been made. Let its pronouns be read in the first 
person. 

In our "Defoe Period" p. 114 we were first to lay the 
claim that all the poems introductory to the plays, 
though other names are appended to them, were still 
products of Bacon's own pen. This is likewise true of the 
Shakespeare epitaph. It is in these strange words: 

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear 
To dig the dust inclosed here: 
Blest be the man that spares these stones, 
And curst be he that moves my bones." 

Was there no ulterior purpose here, reader, lurking 
behind this strange prohibition? Though it may have 
been abandoned for some later method, still, the words 
of the epitaph seem to us as designed to fix a point or 
monument from which measurements might, at some 
future day, be taken. And where, please, was "Time's 
chest" of Sonnet 65 to find its ultimate resting place? 
See, please. Chapter 3, p. 75 to 78. 

The greater part of Bacon's literary career from 
early years was evidently spent on the dark side of the 
line. This prepared him for that noted readiness and 
brevity displayed in all his attributed work. In a 
literary way he evidently purposed to out-do all that had 
gone before him. Homer not excepted. 

His minute observation, his fabulous memory, to- 
gether with the rapidity and subtlety of his comprehen- 
sion, made him a literary wonder; and in a sense not yet 
revealed; and he remained long at labor. 

Book 6 of his "De Augmentis" in four Chapters 
should here be read in full, and studied; if the reader 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 87 

would fully realize Bacon's great posterity secret. See 
"Phil. Works" by Spedding Vol. 4, p. 438 to 498. It 
concerns the use of cyphers, and the handing on of 
writings to posterity. As to his own great Bi-literal 
Cypher p. 445, he says: "But for avoiding suspicion 
altogether, I will add another contrivance, which I de- 
vised myself when I was at Paris in my early youth, 
and which I still think worthy of preservation. For it 
has the perfection of a cypher, which is to make any- 
thing signify anything; subject, however, to this condi- 
tion, that the infolding writing shall contain at least five 
times as many letters as the writing infolded; no other 
condition or restriction whatever is required." In the 
paragraph opening its first Chapter he says: "And cer- 
tainly I have raised up here a little heap of dust, and 
stored under it a great many grains of sciences and arts; 
into which the ants may creep and rest for a while, and 
then prepare themselves for fresh labors. Now the wisest 
of Kings refers sluggards to the ants; and for my part I 
hold all men for sluggards who care only to use what 
they have got, without preparing for new seed times and 
new harvests of knowledge." From this Chapter Mrs. 
Gallup's great work entitled "Francis Bacon's Bi-literal 
Cypher" to which we shall later have occasion to refer, 
takes its origin. 

Before entering upon the facts themselves involved 
in Bacon's overthrow, we permit him some further words 
in addition to those set forth in Chapter 2. 

Throughout his entire career he was notably silent as 
to any Injuries done to himself. This fact should be con- 
sidered In estimating his character. Happenings to him- 
self he ever attributes, either to providence, or fortune. 
See, please. In our "Defoe Period," p. 76 to 90, what 



88 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

he says of providence and fortune. Fortune, in the plays 
he calls a strumpet. And, in Sonnet 111, we have: 

Ofor my sake do you with Fortune chide, 
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds. 
That did not better for my life provide 
Than public means which public manners breeds. 
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, 
And almost thence my nature is subdued 
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand: 
Pity me then and wish I were renew'd; 
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink 
Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection; 
No bitterness that I will bitter think, 
Nor double penance, to correct correction. 
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye 
Even that your pity is enough to cure me." 

The author in this Sonnet laments his entry into 
public life. What relation can it bear, reader, to the life 
doings of the man Shaksper? In this Sonnet, in Sonnet 
62 and 110 the author becomes his own self critic. 

As to this guilty goddess "Fortune," see now, please. 
Sonnets 25, 29, 37 and 90. 

In Sonnet 68 the author says the times are bad, and 
that their "signs of fair" are but "bastards." See also 
Sonnet 127 wherein he refers to time, or the times, as 
his mistress. And in Sonnet 67 he, as to both the times, 
and himself, says: 

AH! wherefore with infection should he live. 
And with his presence grace impiety. 
That sin by him advantage should achieve 
And lace itself with his society? 
Why should false painting imitate his cheek 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 89 

And steal dead seeing of his living hue? 

Why should poor beauty indirectly seek 

Roses of shadow, since his rose is true? 

Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt is, 

Beggar'd of blood to blush through lively veins? 

For she hath no exchequer now but his. 

And, proud of many, lives upon his gains. 

O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had 
In days long since, before these last so bad." 

We now permit the author, whoever he may have 
been, to tell his own story concerning his guilt. As we 
have seen, Bacon said, "I am not guilty to myself of any 
unworthiness, except perhaps too much softness at the 
beginning of my troubles." And the author of Sonnet 
121 says: 

''THIS better to be vile than vile esteem'd, 
-*• When not to be receives reproach of being, 

And the just pleasure lost which is so deem'd 

Not by our feeling but by others' seeing: 

For why should others' false adulterate eyes 

Give salutation to my sportive blood ? 

Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, 

Which in their wills count bad what I think good? 

No, I am that I am, and they that level 

At my abuses reckon up their own: 

I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel; 

By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown; 
Unless this general evil they maintain, 
All men are bad, and in their badness reign." 

The reader should not fail to read attentively what 
the author says to the King in Sonnets 35, 49, 58, 88, 89, 
1 18 and 125, touching the question of his guilt here under 



90 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

review. In the last quoted Sonnet, "By their rank 
thoughts my deeds must not be shown" will appear the 
Author's entire disbelief in obtaining justice by any 
attempted defense. His efforts to secure pardon had 
failed. The King's dalliance and delay in it, find expres- 
sion in Sonnets 57 and 58. In Sonnet 58 he says: 

WHAT God forbid that made me first your slave, 
I should in thought control your times of pleasure, 
Or at your hand the account of hours to crave. 
Being your vassal, bound to stay your leisure ! 
O, let me suffer, being at your beck. 
The imprison'd absence of your liberty; 
And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check, 
Without accusing you of injury. 
Be where you list, your charter is so strong 
That you yourself may privilege your time 
To what you will; to you it doth belong 
Yourself to pardon of self-doing crime. 

I am to wait, though waiting so be hell; 

Nor blame your pleasure, be it ill or well." 

The author of this Sonnet says to the King it was God 
"that made me first your slave," having opened the 
previous Sonnet in the words, 

"Being your slave what should I do but tend 
Upon the hours and times of your desire.?" 
The opening word "What" of the foregoing Sonnet is 
in some editions printed "That." The offense that needs 
pardon, is in this Sonnet said to be the King's own. 

If asked on what authority these Sonnets and these 
words apply to a King, we answer, the Author's own 
words in Sonnet 57, wherein we have "Whilst I, my 
sovereign, watch the clock for you." 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 91 

The King's hypnotism over the author was at its 
height at the writing of Sonnets 1 12, 1 13 and others. His 
ultimate, though not open breach with him, began in 
Sonnet 87. And he closes Sonnet 147 touching the King 
thus: 

"For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, 
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night." 

If the reader would know something of the true in- 
wardness of this King James I., as developed near the 
close of his reign, let him read attentively Chapter 16, 
Vol. 3 of "Knight's History of England." 

We come now to the covert causes which were in- 
volved in Francis Bacon's overthrow. They have not 
been touched by others, so far as we know. Attention 
at the outset is invited to Sonnet 120; and to its covert 
words to the King "To weigh how once I suffer'd in your 
crime." It is in these words: 

npHAT you were once unkind befriends me now, 

-■- And for that sorrow which I then did feel 
Needs must I under my transgression bow. 
Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel. 
For if you were by my unkindness shaken 
As I by yours, you've pass'd a hell of time, 
And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken 
To weigh how once I sufFer'd in your crime. 
O, that our night of woe might have remember'd 
My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits. 
And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd 
The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits! 

But that your trespass now becomes a fee; 

Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me." 



92 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Earlier we have noted the King's feigned tears at the 
opening of Bacon's troubles, p. 37. Duringthis period Ba- 
con in a letter to Mathews says: "I would not have my 
friends (though I know it to be out of love) too appre- 
hensive either of me, or for me; for I thank God my ways 
are sound and good, and I hope God will bless me in 
them. When once my master, and afterwards myself, 
were both of us in extremity of sickness (which was no 
time to dissemble) I never had so great pledges and cer- 
tainties of his love and favour: and that which I knew 
then, such as took a little poor advantage of these latter 
times, know since." "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding, 
Vol. 7, p. 201. 

Let the reader contrast this letter and its guarded 
closing words, with the Sonnet under review, especially 
with its words "To weigh how once I sufFer'd in your 
crime." 

Read then Bacon's letter written at the close of the 
Somerset trial, just before the King left for Scotland. 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 5, p. 347. We claim to the reader 
that the words of this Sonnet "To weigh how once I 
sufFer'd in your crime," are Bacon's own words to the 
King touching the death of Sir Thomas Overbury in 
the Tower in 1616. 

When Somerset, the then King's favorite, was ar- 
rested for the crime, he was found in company with the 
King who was lolling his arms about his neck, and kissing 
him. Departing, the King said, "Now the Deel go with 
thee for I will never see thy face any more." "Knight's 
History of England," Vol. 3, p. 300. Devices were used 
by the King to induce Somerset to confess, he declaring 
the King durst not bring him to trial. "Bacon's Letters," 
Vol. 5, p. 305, 340 to 346. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 93 

Was the shielding of the King, upon the trial of this 
cause, that which "God forbid" in Sonnet 58? Francis 
Bacon's overthrow took its chief, its tap-root, here, we 
say, in this noted trial; by reason of an awakened hate, 
which, though covert, as we shall see, was both bitter, 
and bottomless. At its beginning Bacon said to the 
King: "Your Majesty hath put me upon a work of 
providence in this great cause." He entertained a fixed 
belief that the Somerset case, at bottom, involved a plot, 
a new attempt to return England to the old or Catholic 
faith, by throwing her into the arms of Spain, in con- 
nection with the, then on foot Spanish marriage alliance. 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 6, p. 144 to 147. See in this the 
work of "Northampton and the Undertakers." "Bacon's 
Letters," Vol. 5, p. 41 to 48, and p. 71 to 74; and Vol. 6, 
p. 144 to 187; Vol. 4, p. 283. See, then, please. Vol. 7, 
p. 369. 

This had been earlier sought during the reign of 
Elizabeth, by the Queen of Scots, the King's mother, a 
staunch supporter of the Catholic faith; but averted by 
her execution largely through plottings and by fear of the 
event. 

At the close of the Somerset trial, the King ran at once 
to Scotland, making first, a sweeping proclamation, 
ordering all the nobility and gentry from London into the 
country and done evidently to quell the strange gossip 
which the case had aroused at what was then called "A 
Popish plot." 

Coke, Bacon, and the nobility, had learned too much 
already in this strange trial, touching the King himself. 
Rumor said his hand was deep in the business. See 
"Knight's History of England," Vol. 3, p. 243 to 367. 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 5, p. 337, 341 and 344. 



94 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Coke and Bacon must now be awed — placed beneath 
the hatchet — and rumor quelled. This was the diplomacy 
of James. This he did to the finish, by first pitting Bacon 
against Coke, whose mouth had been too open during 
the trial; and then, later, by Coke against Bacon. Being 
at known enmity with each other, this was the more 
easily effected, by the King, without disclosing his 
motives. And what did make the author of Sonnet 58, 
whoever he was, the King's slave.? What was the "self- 
doing crime" of that Sonnet? And why had the King 
"tongue-tied" the author of Sonnet 140.'* 

Francis Bacon's overthrow must ere long be placed 
in the open, having slept now nearly three centuries. The 
secret three headed combine called in Sonnet 137 "a 
several plot" will yet take air. 

Though not without faults, who is.f* still, the bribery 
charges against Bacon we regard but as a color; a pretext. 
They would neither have been made, nor have prevailed, 
had it not been for that which lay behind, reader. 
Bribery charges were not presented until after Bacon 
was fully within the trap, let it be remembered; he having 
been first charged as one of certain Referees in other 
matters which the King purposed not to have opened. 
See, please, "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 195 to 199 and 
184 to 209. After some skirmishing the business of the 
Referees was totally abandoned, bribery charges against 
him taking its place. That Bacon had been promised 
full pardon, to forego his defense, see his own words, 
Chapter 2, p. 41. He had no trial, but was compelled 
now to a particularized statement. He gave not this 
until he saw the King's hand joined with his enemies. 
He was then made to realize what the plotters unalterably 
proposed to have, and he gave it, as the shortest and safe- 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 95 

est way. The business of the Referees concerned, we 
say, "the South Sea," a secret thwarted Baconian project 
for revenue, tacked to his "New Atlantis," which had long 
been carried in smother, and wherein many Englishmen 
had lost their money. It was thwarted by his enemies, 
and sharpers. It will be touched later. Instead of the 
"New Atlantis," not published until 1627, being a 
Baconian vision, we say it was a secret organization of 
his own day, with a membership of the best blood of 
England, but so secret as to be almost unknown, save by 
his own words. In its closing paragraph he says, "We are 
here in God's bosom a land unknown." Later we think it 
engaged in Buckingham's impeachment, and in Bacon's 
great posterity project. Touching "the South Sea" and 
the mentioned scheme, we from "As You Like It," Act 
3, Sc. 2, quote thus: "Ros. Good my complexion! dost 
thou think, though I am caparison'd like a man, I have a 
doublet and hose in my disposition? One inch of delay 
more is a South-sea of discovery. I pr'ythee, tell me, 
who is it.^ quickly, and speak apace. I would thou 
couldst stammer, that thou might'st pour this conceal'd 
man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow- 
mouth'd bottle; either too much at once, or none at all. 
I pr'ythee, take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may 
drink thy tidings." 

It has been thought that Bacon was unaware of his 
danger until charges were actually preferred against 
him. On the contrary, just before the Parliament con- 
vened wherein he met his overthrow, he opens a letter to 
the King thus: "May it please your Majesty, I thank 
God that I number my days both in thankfulness to Him 
and in warning to myself." See "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 
7, p. 168. 



96 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

The purpose of this letter doubtless was to strengthen 
the King in his favor, and to intimate, what he then 
anticipated. He was aware of the undercurrent, of envy, 
that was mining for him, though not, we think, of its 
scope. 

Let us now look at some of the motives that lay back 
of this movement; and first at the tap-root motive. 
Following the mentioned Somerset trial, and while the 
King was still absent in Scotland, Bacon was warned by 
letter from a friend who came fresh from an interview 
with both King and Buckingham. This warning letter 
should be read in full. From it we quote points three and 
four, thus: 

"3rd. That it is too common in every man's 
mouth in court, that your greatness shall be abated, 
and as your tongue hath been as a razor to some, so 
shall theirs be to you. 

"4th. That there is laid up for you, to make your 
burden the more grievous, many petitions to his 
Majesty against you." 
The letter closes with "I beseech your Lordship burn 
this letter." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 6, p. 248. 

But in what, please, had Francis Bacon's tongue been 
"a razor to some?" Much might be said here. Space 
permits us little more than to touch it. We here but out- 
line. 

In his charge, in the Somerset trial, Bacon, among 
other things said: "For impoisonment, I am sorry it 
should be heard of in this kingdom: it is not nostri 
generis nee sanguinis: it is an Italian crime, fit for the 
court of Rome, where that person that intoxicateth the 
Kings of the earth with his cup of poison in heretical 
doctrine, is many times really and materially intoxicated 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 97 

and impoisoned himself." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 5, p. 
309, and see page 44, 72, 162, and 165. 

Note what he said on this trial touching Northamp- 
ton. He had been the most powerful person in the 
government of James, and was in full accord with the 
Romish church. 

Again, in a charge to the Judges while the King was 
still in Scotland, Bacon said, "Now to some particulars, 
and not many. Of all other things I must begin as the 
King begins; that is, with the cause of religion; and 
especially the hollow church-papist, St. Augustin hath 
a good comparison of such men, affirming that they are 
like the roots of nettles, which themselves sting not, but 
yet they bear all the stinging leaves. Let me know of 
such roots, and I will root them out of the country." 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 6, p. 213. Throughout the plays 
note the use of this word "nettle" and "nettle danger." 

Buckingham, whose mother was a Catholic, succeeded 
Somerset as King's favorite. Upon becoming such, 
Bacon in a letter of advice to him, says: "Take heed, I 
beseech you, that you be no instrument to countenance 
the Romish Catholics, nor the religion professed by them. 
I cannot flatter you; the world. Sir, believes that some 
near in blood to you are too much of that persuasion; you 
may use them with fit respects, according to the bond of 
nature; you are of kin, and so must be a friend to their 
persons, but not to their errors." "Bacon's Letters," 
Vol. 6, p. 31. 

The long Expostulatory Letter to Coke should be read 
here in full. Though not subscribed, it was surely Bacon's 
as Coke, Buckingham, the King, and others were well 
aware. Spedding does not think it his, and gives it but in 
part. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 6, p. 121. 



98 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

The burden of this anonymous letter, was a Popish 
Plot behind the Somerset business. It is a biting criticism 
upon Coke, for his indiscreet acts on the trial. It claims 
that they averted the opening of the Plot. Coke, from the 
bench, p. 125, at the beginning of the trial among other 
strange things said: "I think next the gunpowder trea- 
son there was never such a plot as this is. I could discover 
knights, great men and others." 

As already stated Bacon believed the business involved 
a new attempt to return England to the old faith, in con- 
nection with the then on foot Spanish marriage, backed 
by Northampton and others, and that Overbury became 
possessed of the secret, and so was run quickly to the 
Tower. 

It may clearly be seen from the foregoing in what 
Bacon's tongue had become "a razor to some." For a 
considerable period of time, he had, with great subtlety, 
stood athwart the ripening of events. "The church is the 
eye of England;" says Bacon. He says: "Divinity is the 
art of arts." 

Every investigation into the life and doings of Francis 
Bacon will be found defective that fails to recognize the 
fact that he had ever his forefinger upon the world's pulse 
ecclesiastic; and that until after his fall, he was a believer 
in the doctrine of passive obedience, and the divine right 
of Kings. 

Later the opportunity came, and Rome, or its ad- 
herents, made even with Bacon for calling them "nettles," 
and their belief "the sore of time," as he does both in and 
out of the plays. See as to "nettle-seed" our " Defoe 
Period," p. 327. We must present the causes involved in 
Francis Bacon's overthrow, as they appear to us. The 
reader must judge. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 99 

The second cause involved in the "several plot" for his 
overthrow, was Coke and his adherents, endeavoring to 
beat back this doctrine of passive obedience. The third 
cause was his thwarted revenue scheme wherein many 
Englishmen lost their money. These losses we understand 
to be the "harmful deeds" of Sonnet 111. Let your 
globes of vision rest here. Reader. See p. 100. It was 
tacked, we say, to his "New Atlantis." His carefully pre- 
pared speech to Parliament concerning it, should be read 
here in full. It may be found in our "Defoe Period" page 
20 to 23. Mr. Spedding fails to give it. See, please, what 
he says concerning it. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 199, 
200, 235. Note page 189, and 190, that Bacon had been 
sent for by the King. We will have occasion to quote from 
it later. 

Did Bacon's lost, or kept out of sight, budget of April 
25th, 1615, concern it? See "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 5, 
p. 129 and 130. And was there a fixed and settled pur- 
pose to keep them concealed, reader? 

As to England, the King was a foreigner, and was lavish 
in his expenditure of money. Parliament, to the time of 
Bacon's overthrow, had persistently neglected or refused 
to supply him with money, unless he would surrender cer- 
tain prerogatives. To supply his necessities England's 
Treasury, now and for a long time had been placed in com- 
mission. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 6, p. 317 and Vol. 7, p. 1. 
Bacon ever urged the King to rely upon Parliament for 
means. But the Undertakers following the defeat of 
Salisbury's scheme in 1612, backed by Northampton and 
others, boggled, and thwarted; and the King in anger dis- 
solved without relief; each and every of his Parliaments to 
the one wherein Francis Bacon met his overthrow in 1621. 



100 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

The business of this commission, let it be remembered, 
consisted in devising and carrying out revenue projects. 
Salisbury's, known as the "great contract," had been 
carried to open, and had failed. It had noised abroad, to 
Spain, and elsewhere, the King's wants. Bacon's scheme 
for revenue backed by his "New Atlantis," was now to 
follow a different method. It was to be carried and man- 
aged with the utmost secrecy. Let the Defoe "Essay on 
Projects" be called here to its true place in this literature. 
See Addison on projects. Vol. 4, page 198 to 202. 

When the bottom of this secret scheme is reached, 
reader, the mystery surrounding Raleigh's voyage, and his 
subtle taking off and the King's methods in it, will be in 
the open. Why went it so in smother? Did the King im- 
pose silence here? Who put up the 40,000 pound bond for 
the faithful performance of Raleigh's trust? See "Bacon's 
Letters," Vol. 6, p. 343, 345 and 349. And whose property 
ultimately went to satisfy those Englishmen who had so 
lost their money, in that thwarted "New Atlantis" 
scheme? Again, whose tongues were tied, following its 
defeat ? See Sonnet 140 and our presentation at p. 41 to 45. 

This investigation should be the work of our projected 
Society. Let Bacon's labors in 1618 be here looked into, 
wherein he sought now to adjust this his secret revenue 
scheme into relation with England's treasury. He first 
signed his name here as Francis Verulam. "Bacon's 
Letters," Vol. 6, p. 3 17. Note following it, his letter to the 
King, p. 452. 

This thwarted revenue scheme came not to light, 
reader, until an attempt to re-enact it in the Defoe Period; 
and then not as Bacon's. It, and the prepared literature 
concerning it, belongs with Bacon's Posthumous Pocket 
labors. These papers concern reform, and were aids 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 101 

in placing the English Constitution upon its true 
ancient foundation. They consist of the mentioned 
Defoe "Essay on Projects;" Essay on "The South Sea 
Trade;" on "The Six Distinguishing Characters of a 
ParUament Man;" "Considerations Upon Corrupt Elec- 
tions of Members to Serve in Parliament;" "The Free- 
holders Plea Against Stock-jobbing;" "Elections of Parlia- 
ment Men;" "The Succession of the Crown of England 
Considered;" "The Villany of Stock Jobbers Detected and 
the Causes of the Late Run upon the Bank and Bankers 
Discovered and Considered;" "The Dangers to the Protes- 
tant Religion Considered from the Present Prospect of a 
Religious War in Europe;" "The Original Power of the 
Collective Body of the People of England Examined and 
Asserted;" and others. These brief pamphlets came from 
Francis Bacon's own hand we say, during the period now 
under review. They were part of his posterity labors, 
and were played out later. 

As to "Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Mem- 
bers to Serve in ParUament," see now "Bacon's Letters," 
Vol. 5, p. 19 to 24, and 52 to 75, also 161 to 191. We could 
give many references. See Vol. 7, p. 116, 127, 183. As 
to "The Six Distinguishing Characters of a Parliament 
Man," see, please, "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 5, p. 176 to 

191. 

As to the "Dutch" and the "Catastrophe" itself, of 
Bacon's thwarted revenue or "South Sea Scheme;" see 
please our "Defoe Period" page 475 to 478. As to the 
"Dutch" and this same "Catastrophe" see Bacon's Letter 
dated November 26th, 1619. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, 
p. 63. It is again touched on page 76. Note its allusion to 
"the jolly letter from Zealand, and the King's dislike of 



102 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

it." Note please in these letters, Bacon's covert air of 
secrecy. See page 181 to 191; and Vol. 7, p. 116, 127, 183. 

"The Newly Discovered Defoe Papers" should be 
introduced here to the reader. Later we will call them to 
relation with Bacon's great "Alphabet of Nature." 
Throughout, they present a distinctive uncalled for use of 
capital letters, and are all works in cypher. See in this 
our "Defoe Period" page 447 to 520. Touching the ques- 
tion of revenue, see, please, page 462 to 475 and 501 to 
507. 

Having earlier touched to relation the triple cause 
involved in Francis Bacon's overthrow, we here introduce 
the subtle Sonnet 137, which directly concerns it. It is 
called "a several plot." And the author to himself here 
says: 

THOU blind fool. Love, what dost thou to mine eyes, 
That they behold, and see not what they see? 
They know what beauty is, see where it lies. 
Yet what the best is take the worst to be. 
If eyes corrupt by over-partial looks 
Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride. 
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks. 
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied.? 
Why should my heart think that a several plot 
Which my heart knows the wide world's common place? 
Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not. 
To put fair truth upon so foul a face? 

In things right true my heart and eyes have erred. 
And to this false plague are they now tranferr'd." 

Let "mine eye" of Sonnet 113 be called into relation 
with "mine eyes" of this Sonnet. The author's hypno- 
tism, his love, is in this Sonnet, said to be a "Wind fool;" 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 103 

in Sonnet 57 a true fool; in Sonnet 147 it is as a fever; 
and in Sonnet 119 it is said to be ruined and new built. 
In the foregoing Sonnet, the author sharply criticises the 
folly of his love, in not heeding the "several plot." 

Touching now its "false plague," we from Bacon's 
Letter to Buckingham at the beginning of his troubles, 
quote thus: 

"Your Lordship spake of purgatory. I am now in it, 
but my mind is in a calm; for my fortune is not my felicity. 
I know I have clean hands and a clean heart; and I hope a 
clean house for friends or servants. But Job himself, or 
whosoever was the justest judge by such hunting for 
matters against him as hath been used against me, may 
for a time seem foul, specially in a time when greatness is 
the mark and accusation is the game. And if this be to be 
a Chancellor, I think if the great seal lay upon Hounslow 
Heath, nobody would take it up." "Bacon's Letters," 
Vol, 7, p. 213. This letter, which has no date, was written 
we judge after the business of the Referees had been aban- 
doned, for the bribery charges; and when Bacon first 
found himself fully within the trap. Touching the plot 
itself of the foregoing Sonnet, see the play of "The Temp- 
est," Act 4, Sc. 1, which first appeared in the folio of 1623. 

A man's character is what he in fact is; his reputation 
simply what people believe him to be; on either true or 
false testimony. The suave letters and speeches of 
Francis Bacon to those whom he well knew were seeking 
his ruin, have, we think, greatly befogged the estimate 
thus far made of him. To this must be added withheld, 
tampered with, and many undated, misplaced papers. 
The question which here confronts us is, may one without 
guilt, pit subtlety against subtlety to preserve honor, and 
the sequestration of property, in the face of a known 



104 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

determined purpose for his overthrow? See Sonnet 90, as 
to this "purposed overthrow." 

When Bacon saw the King's hand, joined with his 
enemies, he realized that defense would be futile; and at 
once assumed the attitude towards him, in which he 
placed Cranmer, in his play of Henry the 8th, Act 5, Sc. 
1, where we have: 

"Cran. Most dread liege, 
The good I stand on is my truth and honesty; 
If they shall fail, I, with mine enemies. 
Will triumph o'er my person, which I weigh not, 
Being of those virtues vacant, I fear nothing 
What can be said against me." 

A little further on he says: 

"Cran. God and your majesty 
Protect mine innocence, or I fall into 
The trap is laid for me. " 

Having at the instance of the King abandoned his de- 
fence as indicated in Sonnets 49 and 125, Bacon was soon 
made to realize where his pet doctrine of passive obedience 
placed him, in the hands of such a King. And so in 
Sonnet 118 he says, it "brought to medicine a healthful 
state." 

Let this King's kissing and lolling of arms about the neck 
of Somerset upon his arrest be called to relation with 
"your ne'er cloying sweetness" of this Sonnet. See its 
words "Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you." p. 40. 

When the flush of Bacon's sorrow had passed, he re- 
viewed the situation. From the King's "ne'er cloying 
sweetness," and from his broken bed-rock vow of pardon, 
referred to in Sonnet 152, Bacon broke forth to a new 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 105 

dawning, to "a second life on second head" as stated in 
Sonnet 68, where the good days of Queen Elizabeth are 
contrasted with the "bastard signs of fair" of those of 
James the 1st. This Sonnet must ever mark the beginning 
of Francis Bacon's new or second Hterary period. It is in 
these words: 

THUS is his cheek the map of days outworn, 
When beauty lived and died as flowers do now, 

Before these bastard signs of fair were born, 

Or durst inhabit on a living brow; 

Before the olden tresses of the dead. 

The right of sepulchres, were shorn away. 

To live a second life on second head; 

Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay: 

In him those holy antique hours are seen, 

Without all ornament, itself and true. 

Making no summer of another's green. 

Robbing no old to dress his beauty new; 
And him as for a map doth Nature store, 
To show false Art what beauty was of yore." 

The "signs of fair" of James' government are here 
said to be "bastards," at least, you have here Bacon's 
own words for it, reader, and it is his story we are trying 
to let him tell. 

"The olden tresses of the dead" clearly alludes to 
Queen Elizabeth, under whose reign men in safety "lived 
and died as flowers do now." As to "the right of sep- 
ulchres." If now Bacon was the son of Leicester and the 
Queen, by a valid secret marriage, as claimed in his own 
Bi-literal Cypher, then, as already stated, the first 
eighteen purposeful Sonnets may be justly regarded as 
an adroit urging upon the Queen to declare or pro- 



106 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

claim his own lawful right to the throne, as her successor; 
well knowing she would or could not wed. As she could 
not be induced to do this, so "the right of sepulchres 
were shorn away." The cypher story says that early in 
her reign she agreed to do this. See Mrs. Gallup's 
Work, p. 351. 

Had Bacon been preparing the "fleece," now thought 
"dead," by reason of his overthrow, with an abiding 
hope of succession.? The new life began now, ere the 
literary "dead fleece had made another gay." The 
"dead fleece" evidently alludes to the author's Golden 
Fleece, his literary work. 

Touching now his troubles, and the "second life" of 
the Sonnet, he in Sonnet 110 says: "These blenches 
gave my heart another youth." 

And he closes Sonnet 109 touching his philosophy 
thus: 

"For nothing this wide universe I call. 
Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all." 

In Sonnets 100, 101 and 107 Bacon withdraws his 
love and duty from the King to his heart's garden, his 
"love's sweet face," philosophy. And in Sonnet 100 he 
says: 

WHERE art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long 
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might? 
Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song, 
Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light.? 
Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem 
In gentle numbers time so idly spent; 
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem 
And gives thy pen both skill and argument. 
Rise, resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 107 

If Time have any wrinkle graven there; 

If any, be a satire to decay, 

And make Time's spoils despised every where. 

Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life; 

So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife." 

Bacon's "pyramid," his literary temple broken at his 
fall, is now to be new-reared, rebuilt. Hence he opens 
Sonnet 123 thus: 

"No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change 
Thy pyramids built up with newer might." 

And he closes it with: 

"This I do vow and this shall ever be; 
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee." 

Bacon himself says of this "pyramid:" "I am not 
raising a capitol or pyramid to the pride of man, but 
laying a foundation in the human understanding for a 
holy temple after the model of the world. That model 
therefore I follow. For whatever deserves to exist 
deserves also to be known, for knowledge is the image 
of existence." "Bacon's Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 107. 
He purposed now to rear to himself an ever enduring 
monument. This he does in Sonnet 107, believing the 
greatest durance to live in the words of a poet. At his 
fall he bestowed it upon his mask, Shakespeare, in Sonnet 
81 as we have seen, p. 84. 

Now in Sonnet 107 this great reflector of light calls 
himself "the mortal moon," and says he and his "true 
love" — his philosophy — have endured their eclipse; and 



108 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

that he will live in it, when "tombs of brass are spent." 
He says: 

NOT mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul 
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, 
Can yet the lease of my true love control, 
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom. 
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured 
And the sad augurs mock their own presage; 
Incertainties now crown themselves assured 
And peace proclaims olives of endless age. 
Now with the drops of this most balmy time 
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes. 
Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme. 
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes: 
And thou in this shall find thy monument. 
When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent." 

For duration, Francis Bacon regarded poetry as the 
best possible material for constructing a monument, and 
for proof thereof refers to the writings of Homer, and 
says: "The monuments of wit survive the monuments 
of power; the verses of a poet endure without a syllable 
lost, while States and Empires pass many periods." 

The author of the foregoing Sonnet refers to efforts 
made to thwart his vast reform, his life work — his "true 
love" — by the ruin of his name. As his ruin was not 
complete, the "augurs" were sad. They may now 
"mock" at their predictions concerning it. The hour 
has past. "Incertainties now crown themselves assured." 
Touching the "all-oblivious enmity" of the "augurs," 
see Sonnet 55. His fears concerning it are again touched 
in Sonnet 119. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 109 

That the King, following the Somerset trial, formed 
a fixed intention to blacken Bacon; to "put some public 
exemplary mark" of disgrace upon him. See please, 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 6, p. 251 and p. 247 and 8. That 
the King came to hate him, see the already mentioned 
Sonnets 89 and 90. 

Did he in subtlety later raise him to the desired 
honors of Verulam and St. Alban that his fall might 
seem the greater; and the eclipse of his influence the 
more dense and durable? While professing a different 
faith, still the King was, at heart, a Catholic as is well 
known. His mother was the Queen of Scots, and was 
executed by reason of Papal plottings for the English 
throne. Touching Buckingham's mother in the business, 
see the above reference, p. 243 and 321; and our "Defoe 
Period," p. 344 to 346. 

In the Sonnet under review, the author indicates 
that he— his thoughts— shall at least live in its masked 
lines and thence his monument, even though death 
"insults o'er dull and speechless tribes"— that is— tribes 
through dullness in not discovering the true facts; and 
hence "speechless" as to the honor due his name. The 
"dull and speechless tribes" have now endured nearly 
three centuries, reader. 

In his writings Bacon oft alludes to the King, as the 
sun; and to the moon, as counsel. Touching "eclipse" 
in this Sonnet we quote him thus: "The fountain of 
honor is the King, and his aspect and the access to his 
person continueth honor in life, and to be banished 
from his presence is one of the greatest eclipses of 
honor that can be." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 4, p. 403. 
See eclipse, please, in Sonnets 33, 34, 35 and Sonnet 60. 



110 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Did space permit we would give examples of Bacon's 
distinctively used words of the Sonnet, as, "lease," 
"augurs," "incertainties," "insults o'er," as we have 
them at hand. In this Sonnet, "thou" should be I. 
It is one of the cover word pronouns, and refers to the 
author himself, and in this, falls under our 7th Division 
of the Sonnets. In the open, it should stand, "And I 
in this shall find my monument," &c. 

But again, the author of this Sonnet alludes to 
himself as "the mortal moon." Dr. Rawley, Bacon's 
Chaplain, and who had the nearest view of him, says: 
"It may seem the moon had some principal place in 
the figure of his nativity; for the moon was never in her 
passion, or eclipsed, but he was surprised with a sudden 
fit of fainting; and that, though he observed not nor 
took any previous knowledge of the eclipse thereof; and 
as soon as the eclipse ceased, he was restored to his 
former strength again." "Phil. Works," Vol. 1 p. 17. 
As to "eclipse" and the words "the figure of his nativity" 
see, please, Sonnet 60. 

But this subject of the moon, "mortal moon;" has a 
deeper reach, reader. It lies deep in Bacon's distinctive 
views on astronomy as well as philosophy, as we will 
show later. He was aware that he possessed unusual 
mental gifts. He believed himself possessed of the first 
rudiment — note it — of self-sustained flame. The earth 
he believed pendant, and without motion, save in its 
own body; contrary to the views of his, or our own day. 
Flame in nature he believed first self-sustained, though 
weak, at the height or body of the moon; where it first 
begins to roll itself into globes; while at the sun, flame 
is on her throne. He says, below the moon, flame is 
flickering and halting with the fall, and requires to be 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS HI 

fed. He believed the moon to be the last sediment of 
earthly, and the first rudiment of heavenly, or self- 
sustained flame; and himself to be of that sediment and 
first rudiment; and so, the "mortal moon" of the Sonnet. 
We have particularized these distinctive views as they 
are wrought into every phase of the writings here called 
under review, Milton not excepted. 

Note them, please, as bearing upon the question of 
his wonderful authorship. Throughout these writings 
we have his ever used words "flame" and "inflame" as 
applied to mind. He says, "Mind is the divine fire." 
In the Plays we have, "the flame of love," the "heat and 
flame of thy distemper," "love's hot fire," "the wicked 
fire of lust," "the blaze of youth," and, "up with in- 
flaming wrath." His Chaplain, Dr. Rawley, of his 
mental gifts says: "I have been induced to think, that 
if there were a beam of knowledge derived from God 
upon any man in these modern times, it was upon him. 
For though he was a great reader of books, yet he had 
not his knowledge from books, but from some grounds 
and notions from within himself." "Phil. Works," Vol. 
1, p. 2. 

The mentioned misplaced paper which concerns his 
"Formula," opens thus: "Believing that I was born for 
the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the 
commonwealth as a kind of common property which like 
the air and the water belongs to everybody, I set my- 
self to consider in what way mankind might be best 
served, and what service I was myself best fitted by 
nature to perform." 

Further on, touching his own gifts, he says, "For 
myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as 
for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and 



112 FRANCIS BACON'S OWN STORY 

versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things 
(which is the chief point), and at the same time steady 
enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; 
as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience 
to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, 
readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set 
in order; and as being a man that neither affects what 
is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every 
kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind 
of familiarity and relationship with Truth." "Bacon's 
Letters," Vol. 3 p. 84. As to "truth" see Sonnet 101. 

This paper surely should be read in full. More of 
himself is said in it than will be found in all the rest of 
his attributed writings. He in it provides for the publi- 
cation of his writings to posterity, reserving, however, 
the "Formula." See Chapter 3. p. 66 and 67. 

Subsequent to his fall Bacon speaks of "the good 
pens that forsake me not." He says: "And since I 
have lost much time with this age, I would be glad as 
God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity." 
Speaking of his great system, as a whole, he says: "For 
the great business God conduct it well." Again he says: 
"I must confess my desire to be, that my writings should 
not court the present time or some few places in such 
sort as might make them either less general to persons 
or less permanent in future ages." He says: "And if 
I should hereafter have leisure to write upon government 
the work will probably either be posthumous or abortive." 

In his great posterity drama, he purposed to instruct 
"the actors themselves." Subsequent to his fall as 
already stated he in a letter to Gondomar says: "But 
for myself, my age, my fortune, yea my Genius, to which 
I have hitherto done but scant justice, calls me now to 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 113 

retire from the stage of civil action and betake myself 
to letters, and to the instruction of the actors themselves, 
and the service of Posterity. In this it may be I shall 
find honor, and I shall pass my days, as it were in the 
entrance halls of a better life." "Bacon's Letters," 
Vol. 7, p. 285. These are Francis Bacon's own words, 
not ours, reader. 

To the time of his fall, he had carried his life labors 
double; in the open, in part, towards his own day; and 
in the dark towards posterity, or his Posthumous Pocket 
on which he ever had his eye. This Pocket, we say, 
consisted of "the cabinets, boxes, and presses" named in 
his last will, dated December 19th, 1625. He says in 
it, they are "that durable part of my memory." 

His new flooring of knowledge for posterity he 
frames now upon a new basis. He retailors portions of 
his first period and he sits, as his own critic, upon the 
rest. 

His ideational scope is indicated in the words wherein 
he says, "Knowledge is the image of existence." He 
could yield that image in words more accurately and 
elegantly, reader, than could any other son of Adam. 

He was the swift catcher and easy delineator of all 
human motives; and he painted with unerring ornament 
of speech. His Shakespeare Plays were designed to 
untangle the passions and place them in the open. 
This he believed the beginning and business of all true 
instruction. With his views the true instructor must 
come ever upon the plane, mental and moral, of him he 
would instruct. Thus only can attention be gained and 
retained. This must be had, or reform abandoned. And 
so in the trap, or web of entertainment, must the in- 
structed be caught and held firm to the instructor's art. 



114 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

This is the pivotal point in both of Bacon's literary 
periods. Already in our Introduction we have called 
attention to Bacon's views as to the value of the know- 
ledge of evil, to him who would be the true instructor. 
And so in his "Meditationes Sacrae" he says: 

"To a man of perverse and corrupt judgment all 
instruction or persuasion is fruitless and contemptible 
which begins not with discovery and laying open of 
the distemper and ill complexion of the mind which 
is to be recured: as a plaster is unseasonably applied 
before the wound be searched. For men of corrupt 
understanding, that have lost all sound discerning of 
good and evil, come possessed with this prejudicate 
opinion, that they think all honesty and goodness pro- 
ceedeth out of a simplicity of manners, and a kind of 
want of experience and unacquaintance with the affairs 
of the world. Therefore except they may perceive 
those things which are in their hearts, that is to say 
their own corrupt principles and the deepest reaches 
of their cunning and rottenness, to be thoroughly 
sounded and known to him that goes about to persuade 
with them, they make but a play of the words of wisdom. 
Therefore it behoveth him which aspireth to a goodness 
not retired or particular to himself, but a fructifying 
and begetting goodness, which should draw on others, 
to know those points which he called in the Revelation 
the deeps of Satan; that he may speak with authority 
and true insinuation. Hence is the precept: Try all 
things, and hold fast that which is good; which induceth a 
discerning election out of an examination whence nothing 
at all is excluded. Out of the same fountain ariseth 
that direction: Be you wise as Serpents, and innocent 
as Doves. There are neither teeth nor stings, nor venom, 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 115 

nor wreaths and folds of serpents, which ought not to 
be all known, and as far as examination doth lead, tried; 
neither let any man here fear infection or pollution; for 
the sun entereth into sinks and is not defiled. Neither 
let any man think that herein he tempteth God; for his 
diligence and generality of examination is commanded; 
and God is sufficient to preserve you immaculate and pure." 
"Bacon's Literary Works" by Spedding, Vol. 2, p. 244. 
And so, the bed-rock design in both literary periods of 
this vast reformer. Bacon, is here graphically portrayed. 

He taught both the hovel, and the palace, and he 
framed his speech for each. His Plays were but his 
"wood notes." They represent the world, and were 
warbled wild to be elsewhere expanded into a new literary 
age. They are patterns for the ages yet to be. Passions, 
prejudices, motives are here opened to the intellect. 
Entertainment makes it ever attentive and retentive. 
Knowledge, — light, — he believed to be our only true 
fence against evil. 

In his Posthumous Pocket labors, known as the Voy- 
ages and Stories of Defoe, we have the same object in 
view as in the Plays; though falling into a slower measure. 
See, please, our "Defoe Period," p. 31 to 40. In them is 
found that graphic narrational style seen in his "New 
Atlantis." 

The web of entertainment must ever catch and hold 
the attention. His "Pilgrim's Progress" labors will 
catch and hold the multitude, while school divinity 
entertains but few. 

So distinctive now in our quotation, is Bacon's word 
"recured," and his expression "the complexion of the 
mind," that we halt to note them. "Complexion," as 
applied to mind, is distinctive, is Baconian. Note 



116 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

"complexion of the mind," in many examples, in the 
plays. See "recured" in Bacon's identical sense of use 
in Sonnet 45 and later in Milton. This Sonnet with 
Sonnet 146 presents the basis of Bacon's mental philoso- 
phy. Would that we might stay to elaborate it. But 
this threadline treatise is to be no loitering, but a march. 
Touching the views as to Love and Lust, in this 
literature, and their effects, see Sonnet 116 and 129. 
In the "Venus and Adonis" we have: 

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, 
But lust's effect is tempest after sun; 
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain. 
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done; 
Love surfeits not, lust like a glutton dies; 
Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies." 

Bacon says: "Nuptial love maketh mankind; 
friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth 
and embaseth it." See here our "Defoe Period" p. 128 
to 144. 

Bacon's ability to throw his composition, poetry or 
prose, into almost any kind of structure and so carry it, 
rendered him a literary marvel. His mental physiognomy 
reveals itself best, however, in his vocabulary, distinctive 
idioms, and world scope. He used not the words of the 
metaphysician. In obedience to his own tabular method, 
his words follow ever the line of physics. The words 
applied to matter, he applies equally to mind. This 
was the law of his words throughout. He says: "It 
is the perfect law of the inquiry of truth, that there be 
nothing in the globe of matter, that has not its parallel 
in the globe of crystal or the understanding." Again 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 117 

he says: "When true physics have been discovered 
there will be no metaphysics." 

This law of his words will be found throughout his 
Shakespeare and in all the parts or "pen-names" here 
called under review, reader. 

His "New Atlantis," now begins abruptly as if the 
broken ofF or concluding part of some more extended 
composition. It opens thus: 

"We sailed from Peru (where we had continued by 
the space of one whole year), for China and Japan, by 
the South Sea; taking with us victuals for twelve months; 
and had good winds from the east, though soft and weak, 
for five months' space and more. But then the wind 
came about, and settled in the west for many days, so 
as we could make little or no way, and were sometimes 
in purpose to turn back. But then again there arose 
strong and great winds from the south, with a point 
east: which carried us up (for all that we could do) 
towards the north: by which time our victuals failed us, 
though we had made good spare of them. So that 
finding ourselves in the midst of the greatest wilderness 
of waters in the world, without victuals, we gave our- 
selves for lost men, and prepared for death. Yet we 
did lift up our hearts and voices to God above, who 
shozveth His wonders in the deep; beseeching him of his 
mercy, that as in the beginning he discovered the face 
of the deep, and brought forth dry land, so he would 
now discover land to us, that we might not perish. 
And it came to pass that the next day about evening, 
we saw within a kenning before us, toward the north, 
as it were thick clouds, which did put us in some hope of 
land; knowing how that part of the South Sea was 
utterly unknown; and might have islands or continents, 



118 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

that hitherto were not come to light." "Phil. Works," 
Vol. 3, p. 129. Already we have touched the "South 
Sea" and Bacon's secret, thwarted revenue scheme; 
and the later attempt by Harley to reinact it. It was 
said to be "his masterpiece," See here our "Defoe 
Period," p. 384 to 388. 

The "New Atlantis" will be found at one in style 
and structure generally with the narrational portions of 
the Defoe literature, of a hundred years later. Let its 
every feature be carefully contrasted with "Robinson 
Crusoe;" that semblance of artlessness which is the 
perfection of art. In our "Defoe Period" we have 
devoted fourteen full pages to Bacon's range of know- 
ledge, vocabulary, and distinctive expressions, to be 
found in Crusoe. See p. 388 to 402, then 17, 27, 28 and 
64. To encourage colonization was the prominent 
feature in many of the stories. Crusoe is a distinct 
platform for new beginnings. See Bacon on Coloniza- 
tion. It was the most notable feature in the reign of 
James the 1st. Crusoe was to be the beginning of the 
new narrational method, wherein facts were to be made 
royal. See our "Defoe Period, "p. 64. And on p. 317 
Bacon as late as 1622 says he purposes to write "some 
patterns of natural story." He represents truth as 
an island. Note the island in "Crusoe," in the "New 
Atlantis," and in "The Tempest." In "The Tempest," 
the rabble, personated by Caliban, as the body of the 
times, is upon his island and claims, "to be the lord on't/* 
They would sow it with "nettle-seed." 

Yet the "New Atlantis" will be found to be the only 
piece of narrational composition with which Francis 
Bacon's name is now associated. So his "Holy War" 
is the only piece now attributed to him wherein he has 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 119 

attempted to handle a subject by way of dialogue. 
Yet note, reader, that they each are masterpieces in 
their line. The "Holy War" will show Bacon could 
carry a subject in dialogue with as much grace and ease 
as in his Shakespeare plays. He carried it some twenty 
pages in the open; far enough to lay the platform for 
such a war, we say: and then broke it oflF for the Bunyan 
work, by the same title. He was the great teacher, 
who retired, not his thoughts, nor his body, like the 
Monks, but who hooded his personality from portions 
of his writings leaving them thus to time. 

Reader, when you have carefully analyzed the life, 
and life doings, of this great genius, you will have 
wrought into the deepest posterity project which time 
presents. You will find Macaulay's words touching 
this literary Sampson not over-wrought wherein he 
says: "He had an amplitude of comprehension which 
was never yet vouchsafed to any other human being." 
He was, indeed, a mystery to himself, as we shall later see 
from his own words in the "Cypher Work." 

Among other things you will find the vocabulary of 
Sonnets, plays, and of all the herein claimed Posthumous 
Pocket labors to be, in identity, Bacon's vocabulary; 
and the encyclopedic range of knowledge throughout his 
range. Though chewed and re-chewed, spread and re- 
spread, it is all Baconian paste. So in Sonnet Id "as 
the sun is daily new and old, so is my love still telling 
what is told." 

While possessed of these wide gifts, still. Bacon had 
broken from the fold of literary domination. The 
universities and all of the seats of learning of his own 
day were held hide-bound to Aristotle, the then literary 



120 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

dictator. Though lauding his gifts, Bacon still called 
him "a straggler from experience," and left the fold. 

How was Bacon now to stem prejudices as well from 
the universities and pulpits, as elsewhere, and gain 
attention.? How was his own literary wonder, his New 
Age, to take root? Hope from his own day there was 
none. An untried art must now be devised to open 
the way; to open the intellect, and break the stubborn 
back of prejudices and literary domination; and as well 
from Rome as elsewhere. This was his "almost new 
feature in the intellectual world," touched later. 

Human prejudices! Where, O reader, can be 
found a more hateful devil to human progress? As we 
lower our prejudices we ever beat the devil, and see 
clearer. 

The new Art became known as the Club system of 
the Defoe period. They, for a time at least, were to 
be the new seats of learning; and his "Grubean Sages," 
his "Classic Authors in Wood," were to be their true 
instructors. Into these new seats of learning was to 
be poured a varied literary entertainment suited to the 
capacities of all. We have here again the trap or web of 
entertainment for opening the human intellect. It was 
ever the dark side method of this great genius. This 
system will later be called to relation with his "Tale of 
a Tub" addressed to posterity. 

Touching this new or Club system, we from his 
"Grubean Sage," Addison, Bohn's edition, Vol. 2, p. 
253 quote thus: 

"The mind that lies fallow but a single day, sprouts 
up in follies that are only to be killed by a constant 
and assiduous culture. It was said of Socrates that he 
brought Philosophy down from heaven, to inhabit 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 121 

among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of 
me, that I have brought Philosophy out of closets and 
libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and 
assemblies, at tea-tables and in coflFee-houses." The 
Essay should be read in full, and in connection with 
chapter 15, Vol. 5 of "Knights' History of England." 

These Clubs became now the literary feeding booths 
for the English people, concerning matters of State, 
theology, mythology, philosophy, and every phase of 
human thinking and the weedings thereof. What the 
stage had been to the first literary period, the Clubs 
were now to the second. They were the forum. 

With Observer, Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and other 
"Grubean Sage" works we would gladly open this feature 
of our subject, did space permit. Let some one of our 
good Sir Knights place this Addison Essay and its 
design into due relation, as an introductory opening to 
the Club system. To help him forward a little in it, we 
give Francis Bacon's own words thus: 

"You are right in supposing that my great desire 
is to draw the sciences out of their hiding-places into 
the light. For indeed to write at leisure that which is 
to be read at leisure matters little; but to bring about 
the better ordering of man's life and business, with all 
its troubles and difficulties, by the help of sound and 
true contemplations, — this is the thing I am at. How 
great an enterprise in this kind I am attempting, and 
with what small helps, you will learn perhaps hereafter." 

A little further on in it he says, "Surely I think no 
man could ever more truly say of himself with the 
Psalm than I can, 'My soul hath been a stranger in her 
pilgrimage.' So I seem to have my conversation among 
the ancients more than among these with whom I live." 



122 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 4, p. 147. Touching the uni- 
versities Bacon says: "But alas, they learn nothing 
there but to believe; first to believe that others know 
that which they know not; and after that themselves 
know that which they know not." "Bacon's Letters," 
Vol. 1, p. 125. And see p. 82 and 86 as to papal influences 
over them; also "Literary Works," Vol. 1, p. 313 to 
318. Much might be quoted here did space permit. 

Unless our claim be true, reader, where now are 
those writings wherein Francis Bacon, and as "almost 
a new feature in the intellectual world," played "the 
nurse both with his own thoughts and those of others.?" 
See please our "Defoe Period," p. 38 and 39. 

Let now Bacon's undated letter, from which our 
former quotation comes, be joined here with one, the 
date of which has concededly been tampered with. 
And why tampered with.? We, without hesitation say, 
it was written after Bacon's fall; and not to Bodley, as 
claimed. Few of his misplaced papers have more be- 
fogged his work. We give it in full, thus: 

"I think no man may more truly say with the Psalm 
Multum incola fuit anima mea, than myself. For I do 
confess, since I was of any understanding, my mind 
hath in eff'ect been absent from that I have done; and 
in absence are many errors which I do willingly acknow- 
ledge; and amongst the rest this great one that led the 
rest; that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter 
to hold a book than to play a part, I have led my life 
in civil causes; for which I was not very fit by nature, 
and more unfit by the preoccupation of my mind. 
Therefore calling myself home, I have now for a time 
enjoyed myself; whereof likewise I desire to make the 
world partaker. My labours (if I may so term that 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 123 

which was the comfort of my other labours) I have 
dedicated to the King; desirous, if there be any good in 
them, it may be as the fat of a sacrifice, incensed to his 
honour: and the second copy I have sent unto you, not 
only in good aflPection, but in a kind of congruity, in 
regard of your great and rare desert of learning. For 
books are the shrines where the Saint is, or is believed 
to be: and you having built an Ark to save learning from 
deluge, deserve propriety in any new instrument or 
engine, whereby learning should be improved or advanced. 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 3, p. 253. In a foot-note Vol. 
4, p. 64, Mr. Spedding tells us the date of this letter 
1607 has been tampered with. He says: "I find that 
this date (though probably correct) is a modern addition, 
inferred probably from the date of Bodley's answer." 
The letter from which the first quotation comes is 
addressed "To Casaubon." A foot-note tells us it had 
"No signature, date, docket or address." Addressing 
it to Casaubon, as addressing this to Bodley, was the 
result of a mere inference, to say no worse oC it. This 
letter we say was written after Bacon's fall. 

Let its words to the King "as the fat of a sacrifice," 
be called to relation with Sonnet 125 where we have 
" But mutual render only me for thee." Contrast then 
the first half of this letter, reader, with Sonnet 111 
and bow yourself out of this investigation, if you find 
not reasons for our claim. As to the "Calling myself 
home" see Sonnet 100. As to "For books are the 
shrines," we may touch this later. 

Improper headings, misplacings for want of dates, 
as well as tampering with Bacon's manuscripts, should 
receive greater attention than has yet been given them. 
What motive, see p. 61, could have induced Toby 



124 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Mathews to his extensive tamperings with Bacon's 
letters addressed to him, as shown by Mr. Spedding? 
See in this "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 336 to 348 and 
378. Note Bacon's undated letter to Mathews, after 
he had turned Catholic. Followed it the Somerset trial? 
See the letter, please. Vol. 4, p. 10. Note its words 
"as another hell above the ground." As an example 
of this tampering, we in a foot-note, page 364 have, 
"The letter had been dated 21 originally. But the 1 
had been turned into 7 afterwards, and with a paler 
ink. The 1621 should also have been changed to 1622." 
Mr. Spedding's date 1622 is but assumed, and so this 
important letter is twice befogged, reader. See, please, 
in this connection Bacon's letter. Vol. 3, p. 216. 
Let these two letters be then called to relation with 
Bacon's secret revenue scheme, and the business of the 
already mentioned Referees. 

We return here to the new Art, the new seats of 
learning, the clubs and coffee-houses. The coffee-house 
came somewhat earlier than the clubs. Macaulay of 
it says, "It was a political institution, and every man 
of the upper and middle class went daily to his coffee- 
house to learn the news and to discuss it." 

The new seats of learning were designed to entertain 
the mind, to open it; to build it; to weed its prejudices. 
Here, as in his Shakespeare, Bacon made characters 
distinctive. The multiplicity of letters to, and the 
letters between the Sages, were but part of the scheme, 
and they were designed largely to give occasion for the 
articles themselves, "the lucubrations." They each 
and all came from that "amplitude of comprehension 
which was never yet vouchsafed to any other human 
being." These, then, were the Clubs, with which 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 125 

Francis Bacon was to down, beat back, or neutralize 
literary and ecclesiastic domination of the mind; to 
the end that it might once more be open and free to 
something new. This Club system, "this instruction of 
the world in single papers," reader, was that "almost a 
new feature in the intellectual world" wherein Bacon 
played the nurse as well with his own thoughts as those 
of others. See in this our "Defoe Period," p. 38 to 40; 
and p. 457 and notes. In his "Addision" Vol. 4, p. 172 
he opens his paper thus: "The first who undertook to 
instruct the world in single papers, was Isaac Bicker- 
stafF of famous memory." It should be read in full. 
Swift also was BickerstafF. 

The knowledge of the Club writers was one in scope, 
and that scope Bacon's. What one knew, they all 
knew, to its minutest detail. They were each and all 
expert in ancient learning. In other words. Bacon was 
thus expert. And as in Sonnet 68 "To show false Art 
what beauty was of yore." The Sages were all mytholo- 
gists, all theologians, all statemen, all philosophers, all 
astronomers, all poets. "jj Each had the same vocabulary 
and that Bacon's of a hundred years earlier. Let this 
be disproved, reader; you may then flout our claim. 
Not only the words, but a distinctive and unusual use 
of common words prevails throughout. To instance; 
all make use of the word "fellows." We do not, however, 
as did Bacon, say, "heat and light are fellows in many 
effects," or, as in Addison, "the features of his face 
were not fellows," or, as in Defoe, "the two shoes that 
came to shore were not fellows." 

It should likewise be remembered that in some of 
the manuscripts, chasms were left for insertions to 
conform them to the time. Some of them again have 



126 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

extensive unauthorized interpolations. See our "Defoe 
Period," in this, p. 440 to 446, also p. 40 and 420. Again, 
the subjects handled in these papers are chiefly such as 
to make them of interest at any historic period, and 
they were studiously and adroitly handled to that end. 
So from the "Grubean Sage" Addison Vol, 3, p. 435 we 
have: "Most of the papers I give the public are written 
on subjects that never vary, but are for ever fixt and 
immutable. Of this kind are all my more serious essays 
and discourses; but there is another sort of specula- 
tions, which I consider as occasional papers, that take 
their rise from the folly, extravagance, and caprice of 
the present age. For I look upon myself as one set to 
watch the manners and behaviour of my countrymen 
and contemporaries, and to mark down every absurd 
fashion, ridiculous custom, or aff'ected form of speech, 
that makes its appearance in the world, during the 
course of these my speculations." From the Sage, 
Swift, we quote thus: "In all my writings I have had 
constant regard to this great end, not to suit and apply 
them to particular occasions and circumstances of time, 
of place, or of person, but calculate them for universal 
nature and mankind in general." See Bacon's own 
words in this, p. 112. Let the reader have a careful eye 
to this point in the general scope of these writings. Also 
see Chapter 15, Vol. 5, "Knight's History of England." 
The inundation of this literature began its career 
under the leadership of Sir Robert Harley. In our 
"Defoe Period," p. 402 to 447 we present both Harley 
and Defoe, and very carefully Defoe, whose true name 
was Foe, he being the son of James Foe. Daniel, save 
by his initials, never subscribed any portion of the 
writings now attributed to him. The initials were not 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 127 

used prior to his arrest in 1703. He was a liveryman in 
London at the age of 27. Chalmers, in closing his life 
of Defoe, having examined Stationers Hall, says: "I 
was surprised and disappointed to find so few of Defoe's 
writings entered as property, and his name never men- 
tioned as an author or a man." 

Harley while prisoner in the Tower was accredited 
with the authorship of the first volume of Crusoe. 
While Defoe, Addison, Swift, Pope and others were the 
dial-plate; still, Harley was the financial or real move- 
ment in playing out Bacon's posterity drama, now 
known as the English Augustan Age. Did he play it, 
reader, for the author's, or boggle it for his own ends? 

We are aware that the views here presented must of 
necessity require time to ripen. Should the reader 
incline to the views already advanced, let him take no 
prejudice now to that which is to follow; as later it will 
return with redoubled light over the field already trod. 
Let him as romance receive it until it ripen into fact, 
as it surely will. We cautiously, touched it in our 
"Defoe Period" p. 182 to 186. We here and now, under 
better light, affirm it, thus: 

When Francis Bacon was driven by the King's 
physician to Highgate on the morning of April 2nd, 
1626, we say he was not en route for death at the Earl 
of Arundel's house, as now generally supposed; but 
rather was upon his departure from the realm of England 
to a secret retreat at the Hague, or in Germany, where 
he now rested his hopes for the Protestant cause. Enter- 
tained he such secret design when making his last will 
some four months earlier.'' Facts at times are stranger 
than fiction, reader. Note the significant words in the 
will wherein he says: "For my name and memory, I 



128 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign 
nations and the next ages." He certainly had received 
strange treatment in his own. His wealth had been 
taken. Even York House, which he supposed saved 
from the first wreck, he was compelled to yield up at 
Buckingham's dictation. Had Buckingham secret de- 
signs on Bacon's life, known to King Charles, when 
driven by his physician to Highgate.? See our "Defoe 
Period," p. 184 and 185. See also the undated papers 
concerning some secret business between Buckingham, 
Bacon and Highgate. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 
346 to 348, and 354 and 5. Buckingham's impeachment 
began a little later in the Parliament which convened 
February 6th, 1626. See p. 95. 

If Bacon's death had really occurred at this time at 
the Earl of Arundel's house near Highgate; where were 
his funeral rites performed? Who pronounced the 
funeral oration of this noted genius? And what noble- 
men attended the last sad rites? Was Arundel himself 
there? Was Dr. Rawley there? England has here no 
voice. 

She says for fourteen months, though leaving a will 
dated December 19th, 1625 no one assumed control of 
his estate; and later assumed only by creditors, the 
executors declining to act. Mr. Spedding informs us 
his manuscripts were sent to the Hague. And why to 
the Hague? See "Phil. Works," Vol. 3, p. 3 to 10. 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 1, p. 16, Vol. 2, p. 2 and 3. 
The will itself will be found in Vol. 7, p. 539. 

In the will Bacon refers to the "cabinets, boxes and 
presses" as "that durable part of my memory, which 
consisteth in my works and writings." 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 129 

We here arrive at the Posthumous Pocket labors of 
Sir Francis Bacon to this time evolved. Later, in the 
Defoe period they, with others, gave Robert Harley 
place and fame. How the manuscripts came to his 
hands must be told later. Let some good St. Alban 
Knight here lend aid. Bacon's literary retinue, in his 
first period, were his "pen-names," so, in his second, 
his "Grubean Sages," Addison, Defoe, Swift and others 
were the retinue or retainers of Sir Robert Harley, and 
they rendered him both service and honor. Lee, Defoe's 
biographer, says of Harley "we admire the discernment 
and tact of the minister who could engage, in support 
of his policy the pens of such man as Addison, Swift, 
Defoe, Steele, Arbuthnot, Prior, and Davenant; though 
some of them were opposed to each other, personally 
and politically." 

"Henslow's Diary" in the first period, concerns 
managers, assistants, not writers, though doubtless 
thought to be so, by the ignorant tool Henslow, who 
permitted them as they would to make entries in it. 
Among the "pen-names" or "Sages" of Bacon's second 
period, Milton will be found chief, reader. 

Though in concealment. Bacon remained long at 
labor. He was ever a careful student of both methods, 
and medicines, to preserve longevity. We claim for 
him an advanced age, extending until after the trial 
and execution of Charles the 1st in 1649, until which 
time Bacon's hopes failed not of becoming England's 
rightful Sovereign. 

In later pages we will make it clear from Mrs. Gallup's 
own work, that she has, as yet, but discovered the cyphers 
which concern Bacon's first literary period. The great 
cypher over all, "The Capital Letter Cypher," or 



130 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Bacon's great "Alphabet of Nature," remains as yet 
undiscovered. 

We would have the reader return with us here to 
the subject of cypher writing; and to the distinctive 
uncalled for use of capital letters; as set out in all of the 
"Newly Discovered Defoe Papers." See our "Defoe 
Period," p. 447 to 520. The Addison article on the 
subject of capital letters will be found in Bohn's edition 
Vol. 3, p. 102 to 105. It ends thus: "This instance 
will, I hope, convince my readers, that there may be a 
great deal of fine writing in the capital letters which 
bring up the rear of my paper, and give them some 
satisfaction in that particular. But as for the full ex- 
plication of these matters, I must refer them to time, 
which discovers all things." See our "Defoe Period," 
p. 456 to 460. 

The reader should turn now to his "Sartor Resartus," 
or, tailor re-tailored; that waif, that left-over from 
Bacon's Posthumous Pocket, that work of durance, 
that master wheel in the use of the mentioned capital 
letters. It, with marvelous concentration, covers, we 
say, both of Francis Bacon's literary periods. It will 
be touched to relation in Chapter 5. How it; how the 
"Hero Worship," the "Past and Present," and "Crom- 
well's Letters and Speeches"came to the hands of Thomas 
Carlyle we know not; but unhesitatingly say to the 
reader that they were not products of Carlyle's pen, 
save interpolations, many of which they surely contain. 
The entire Chapter on Cromwell and Napoleon in the 
"Hero Worship," save the opening pages, is by another, 
a weaker, and an entirely different hand. This is equally 
true of the Chapter on "The Hero As a Man of Letters;" 
so far as it treats of Rousseau and Burns. The interpo- 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 131 

lated portions treating of Napoleon, Rosseau, and Burns, 
were evidently designed to bring down or link the 
writings to a later date, thus averting thoughts of earlier 
authorship. 

While claiming to be editor of "Cromwell's Letters 
and Speeches," the interpolator fails wholly to conceive 
the business and real design of the Cromwell party; the 
Independents. The Essay fails to comprehend the 
struggle of the times. It regards Cromwell and his 
party as Puritans which they surely were not. In it 
he speaks of the "deep-hearted Calvinistic Cromwell." 
This belies both the Independents and their leader — 
their Joshua. The Independents for power, and the 
end they sought, did covertly work with, and make use 
of them; but surely were not of them. Many readers 
have failed to note this. Again, the Essay is but a weak 
imitation of the master hand. While borrowing some of 
his words and phrases, it still gives but a lame pace to 
many unfound in his diction. Let this weak Essay on 
Cromwell be contrasted, for instance, with the first 
Essay or lecture on "The Hero As Divinity;" or with 
the editorial work itself on the "Letters and Speeches." 
The business of an editor here, as in the "Sartor Re- 
sartus," is but part of the scheme or method of produc- 
tion, reader. There is, save interpolations, but the 
one hand in these writings. We say these Carlyle works 
were surely waifs, were left-overs, from the Bacon 
budget. No careful student, after investigation, dare 
affirm Carlyle's authorship of them. We have not as 
yet called "The French Revolution" under review. 
It will probably be found but a chopped, a garbled work. 
That Bacon intended to begin the publication of his 
writings in France, see please our "Defoe Period," p. 222. 



132 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

This brings us to the times, and doings, of that 
greatly misunderstood man, OHver Cromwell. As 
Aaron was secretary and mouth-piece to Moses; so 
Francis Bacon became covert secretary and mouth- 
piece to Cromwell, and to that secret knot of sturdy 
Englishmen including Rawley, John Milton and others; 
who, had it been possible, would have placed him as 
Francis 1st of England. 

To the public, in the conflict of parties, their true 
aims were covered; were cloaked. They were staunch 
supporters of the English church, and in party came to 
be known as the Independents. They were but movers 
of factions. They sought to place the church upon its 
true ancient foundation; weeded, as Bacon puts it, 
"from Henry the 8ths' confusion." He desired to 
return it to its attitude in the second century. The 
swelling power of the Bishops they thought not consis- 
tent with the meek and lowly teachings of the Word. 
Throughout the plays, where church influences come in 
question, note the domination by Bishop or Archbishop 
over both King and counsel. And note power, fished 
by them from below; from the "seconds". As to Bishops 
and their power see, please, "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 3, 
p. 108, 1 14. And on page 265 we have "A case forlorn, that 
Romish subtlety should underprop English formality." 

In Vol. 1, p. 17 of his Milton's prose works, Bohn's 
edition, he defines the position of the Independents, 
thus: "They that we call independents, are only such 
as hold that no classis or synods have a superiority over 
any particular church, and that therefore they ought 
all to be plucked up by the roots, as branches, or rather 
as the very trunk, of hierarchy itself." And see p, 260. 
In Vol. 2, p. 362 to 509 their views on Bishops and 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 133 

church government are most critically analyzed and 
defined. Few, we think, are familiar with these wonder- 
ful prose writings. Until recently we were among that 
number. We do not believe clearer views on both 
ecclesiastic and popular rights can anywhere be found 
in literature. Here Bacon was surely living his "second 
life on second head," as stated in Sonnet 68. He was 
rechewing for posterity his first literary period and 
weeding from it the now offensive doctrine of the divine 
right of kings entertained to the time of his fall; and 
graphically set out in his government model, later to 
be called under review and now known as the "Levia- 
than." 

With Presbyterians, Puritan dissenters, and Papists; 
the Independents bore no sympathy. To Presbyterians 
they were sharply opposed; believing their root in church 
government would end in Papal power. See, please, 
"Carlyle's Cromwell," Everyman's Library edition, 
Vol. 1, p. 21L See this most graphically portrayed in 
Addison, Bohn's edition, Vol. 2, p. 205 to 210. The 
same views find expression in the "Tale of a Tub." 
See in this our "Defoe Period" p. 574 and 584. Here 
Papists and Calvin, as " Knocking Jack of the North," 
are presented thus: "The frenzy and the spleen of 
both having the same foundation, we may look upon 
them as two pair of compasses, equally extended, and 
the fixed foot of each remaining in the same centre, 
which, though moving contrary ways at first, will be 
sure to encounter somewhere or other in the circum- 
ference." Note now, reader, how unjustly Carlyle, by 
interpolations, befogs this literature. He seeks to throw 
the value of Luther's reform to Calvin, or the Presby- 
terians. See "Hero Worship" lecture 4; Everyman's 



134 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Library edition, p. 372 and 3; and later choppings. 
Thus these writings, and the aims of the Independents 
are woefully belied. The Milton prose writings will 
fully show this. 

Cromwell was but the vigorous outward — the dial- 
plate — of a most secret political movement in England 
to place Francis Bacon upon the English throne; and the 
English church upon its true ancient foundation. This 
was the mission. This, at bottom, was the spur to 
Bacon's endeavors. A lingering faith remained with 
him, that he would ultimately be crowned; and so reap 
the credit of his own vast labors. 

In 1622, and so following his fall, he produced that 
adroitly written dialogue, entitled, "The Holy War." 
He carried it some twenty pages, and far enough to 
lay a true model or platform to justify such a war, 
and says: "Great matters (especially if they be reli- 
gious) have (many times) small beginnings; and the 
platform may draw on the building." This model, we 
say, he broke off or discontinued for the Bunyan work, 
by the same title. It will be found in his "Literary 
Works" by Spedding, Vol. 2, p. 17 to 37. 

Let the reader now find entertainment in seeing 
Francis Bacon turn this model into narration; in his 
"Serious Reflections" of Crusoe. "Defoe Period," p. 
373 to 388, then p. 347 to 373. In the "Cromwell 
Letters" we may find the same views expressed con- 
cerning the establishing of religion by the sword, as in 
the "Crusoe work." An offensive religious war may be 
justly waged only to break and destroy mental domi- 
nation, in other words, to open the door to religion; but 
in no sense to establish creeds or systems. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 135 

This platform was to be used against the Turks and 
pirates of Tunis and Algiers. It was moved first by 
Bacon following the Somerset trial; while the King was 
yet in Scotland; and to be included in the then on foot 
Spanish alliance of Prince Charles with the infanta of 
Spain; and by some, thought, with a view to thwart 
that marriage. See in this our examination of the 
play of "The Tempest." "Defoe Period" p. 319, 346. 
See also "Bacon's Literary Works" by Spedding, Vol. 
2, p. 3 to 7. He most surely was in the way. He had 
long stood athwart the ripening of the Catholic cause. 
See, please, "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 368 to 371. 
In his own day and a little earlier the tenacious struggle 
was on. 

We come now to a point most difficult for our critics 
to evade. Bacon himself says: "But after furnishing 
the understanding with the most surest helps and pre- 
cautions, and having completed, by a rigorous levy, a 
complete host of divine works, nothing remains to be 
done but to attack philosophy itself." This he says at 
the very opening of his crowning work, the "New Organ." 
See our "Defoe Period," p. 67 to 95. See Spedding's 
translation. "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 31. 

Where now are the mentioned "divine works?" 
Among those on inspired divinity; we refer to his Bun- 
yan's "Holy War," and his "Pilgrim's Progress." 
Those on natural theology will be found in the Defoe 
Works. The concluding lines of the poem ending the 
"Holy War" are in these words: 

"I write not this of any ostentation; 
Nor 'cause I seek of men their commendation; 
I did it to keep them from such surmize. 



136 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

As tempt them will my name to scandalize. 
Witness my name, if Anagram'd to thee, 
The letters make Nu hony in a B." 

As to this ever used word "ostentation" in these 
writings we quote Bacon, thus: "In fame of learning 
the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostenta- 
tion." 

In the poem opening the "Holy War," we have: 

"Nor do thou go to work without my Key; 
(In mysteries men soon do lose their way.)" 

As to the "Pilgrim's Progress" see our "Defoe 
Period," p. 460 to 463, and p. 67 to 71. 

This great dream drama is said to be the finest 
specimen of well sustained allegory in any language; 
yet is said to be the work of an untaught rustic. It is 
the work of a Dark author excusing his method by an 
introductory poem. He in it says: 

"My dark and cloudy words, they do but hold 
The truth, as cabinets inclose the gold." 

Bacon made characters as distinctive, in this drama, 
as in his Shakespeare. 

Its first paragraph opens by a "Den." The business 
of the work is to present the idols or errors of that "den," 
in other words, our inner state of heart, life, mind, &c. 

The four idols, or errors of men. Bacon presents as 
the idols or errors of the Den, of the Tribe, of the Market, 
of the Theater; and discusses each at some length. 
Throughout his Shakespeare we find such expressions 
as these: "God ye good den," "God give ye good 
den," "God dig — you — den all!" For examples from 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 137 

the plays, see our "Defoe Period," p. 111. On page 
67, note what Bacon says as to the "stock of observa- 
tions" necessary to write in allegory or aphorisms. 
Bunyan? Ha! In this levy upon the mental energies, 
there must be first an involution, reader, before there 
can be an evolution. In the "Pilgrim's Progress," 
"the den," the inner life of man is for better retention, 
portrayed in characters, mental pictures, so to speak. 
The science of theology is portrayed in it. Its author, 
we say, wrote Milton, wrote the Defoe "History and 
Reality of Apparitions," wrote the Defoe "History of 
the Devil," reader. 

The "Pilgrim's Progress" concerns the person, the 
individual life, and its government. The "Holy War" 
concerns the many, the public. "The den" in it, is 
treated as a fortress, with its outer walls, and called a 
Town, the "Town of Mansoul." Theology in it, as in 
Milton, is treated as a warfare with all of its weapons. 
Touching these "outward walls" of the soul, see Sonnet 
146, where the soul is said to be "the centre of my sinful 
earth." "Outward walls," are called, its "fading man- 
sion." As "rebel powers," they array the soul. 

We return to the contending factions with which 
Cromwell and his party, the Independents, had to deal, 
yea, to move; which they ever did covertly to their 
own ends. Let "Knight's History of England" from 
1642 till the execution of the King, Charles the 1st, in 
1649, be here read with reflection and care. 

The act which culminated in the King's execution 
will be found graphically set out by Bacon in his Milton's 
prose works, Bohn's edition, Vol. 2, p. 139 to 200. On 
page 1 to 48 his execution is fully justified in an article 



138 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

entitled "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates." And 
on page 108 to 138 will be found presented a new form 
of government for England entitled "A Free Common- 
wealth." Bacon's "second life on second head" is here 
revealing itself, reader. We say he was surely its author. 

The mentioned execution was resolved upon at a 
noted army "Prayer Meeting" in 1648. Described 
where.? In "Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," Every- 
man's Library edition, Vol. 1, p. 254 to 260 and see 
page 215. 

Was Carlyle its author? We unhesitatingly say he 
was not. Who was.'' Cromwell's secretary, the man 
who cast or recast his letters and speeches and was the 
editor of them. And still who? Francis Bacon him- 
self, reader. Though in concealment, he was, we say, 
still living, and was the author of these writings. The 
letters are brief, covert, many of them having great 
subtlety, in managing the factions. 

As the mouth-piece of Moses was Aaron; so Bacon 
as covert secretary, was behind Oliver Cromwell and 
his party, in its great secret struggle. Why then upon 
the execution of Charles, did not his adherents proclaim 
him King? To answer this, was the design of our recent 
reference to " Knight's History of England." In the face 
of contending factions then existing, and Bacon's 
advanced years, they dare not now disclose their hand, 
their long carried secret. It died with them. 

And so, again, Bacon chose to leave his record to 
time and his Posthumous Pocket labors. Their inunda- 
tion had not as yet begun. Extremity of romance? 
Yes, surely so, and yet true, reader! Bacon may now 
have thought as earlier he did, in the words which he 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 139 

put into the mouth of his favorite King Henry the 5th 
Act I, See. 2 where he says: 

"Either our history shall, with full mouth, 
Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave, 
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, 
Not worship'd with a waxen epitaph." 

He, and his aims, were largely self-centered in this 
play. There was no English King more valued by 
Francis Bacon. The play was first in print, as we now 
have it, in the Folio of 1623. It is a kind of government 
ynodel. It is a light to all rulers. It seeks to make 
rnanifest that all government rulers should possess an 
accurate knowledge of the deeps of Satan. To truly 
govern, rulers must know "the seconds." Note these in 
Sonnet 125. They must in other words know the strong 
holds, the haunts of vice, and how to weed them. 

Bacon's views as to the value of an accurate know- 
ledge of the depths of evil, in order to guard the good, 
have earUer been quoted p. 114. And see our "Defoe 
Period," p. 31 to 41. How in the play the King 
acquired his accurate knowledge of evil must be told of 
his youth as Prince Henry of Monmouth, in the play 
concerning his father, Henry the IV, where his seeming 
profligacy is presented as an art, in the study of those 
elements which he must later meet and control when he 
himself came to the throne. Bacon had been making 
a like study. 

In dramatic form the plays may be said to present 
the history of England or the Tudor line to the days of 
Elizabeth. They throughout show that the best aims 
of both church and state, are dominated and thwarted 



140 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

by influences fished from "the seconds," from the 
slums. Here, as in his Milton, "the deeps of Satan" are 
portrayed. 

This Monmouth King, in the play, is drawn to 
contrast with Alexander the Great, and with a portrayed 
design to possess France, and from thence to Constanti- 
nople and the Turks. In the "Sartor Resartus" Bohn's 
edition p. 282, to be used in this work, note "Monmouth 
Street, at the bottom of our own English ink-sea." 
And let it be drawn into close relation with this play. 
Bacon contrasts his own doings with those of Alexander 
and says: "I promise to myself a like fortune to that 
of Alexander the Great: and let no man tax me with 
vanity till he has heard the end." "Phil. Works," Vol. 
4, p. 93. 

His "Holy War" dialogue will show how he could 
handle a serious subject, wherein his chosen words 
must, of necessity, conform. If the reader will now see 
how he could likewise handle, by way of dialogue, a 
different and extremely literary and entertaining sub- 
ject, let him turn to his Addison "Dialogues on Medals." 
Bohn's edition. Vol. 1, p. 255 to 356. We say to you, 
reader, Francis Bacon wrote these dialogues. 

Medals, his "faithful registers," were the vat, so to 
speak, out of which Francis Bacon fished up, retailored, 
and restored, ancient fables to their true Hebrew roots, 
for his own use. Thus restored, he, in them, was "paint- 
ed new," as stated in Sonnet 53. In these medals you 
may discover the wonderful assistance received by him 
in interpreting ancient fables, as set out in his "Wisdom 
Of The Ancients," and elsewhere, and spread throughout 
these writings. These medals were, we say, the "faith- 
ful registers" to which he refers in his "New Atlantis." 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 141 

See our "Defoe Period," p. 543. From it, we quote thus: 
"This island (as appeareth by faithful registers of those 
times) had there fifteen hundred strong ships, of great 
content. Of all this there is with you sparing memory, 
or none; but we have large knowledge thereof." He 
elsewhere speaks of one "having obtained into his hands 
many registers and memorials out of the monastaries." 

These "faithful registers" lent him great aid in 
deciphering the ancient poets, as well as the fables them- 
selves. In some private notes wherein he calls himself 
to labor, we have "Discoursing scornfully of the philoso- 
phy of the Grecians with some better respect to the 
Egyptians, Persians, Chaldees, and the utmost antiquity 
and mysteries of the poets." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 
4, p. 64. "For I have taken all knowledge to be my 
providence" says Bacon. 

His "Wisdom Of The Ancients" gives us chiefly those 
restored fables which he designed to use in connection 
with philosophy. 

In his Addison, Bacon was his own critic. His 
critic's chair of the " De Augmentis" he, himself, occupied 
and said what he would of his own Posthumous Pocket 
labors, Milton included. See our "Defoe Period," p. 
31 note 1. Addison, Vol. 3, p. 170 to 173. He himself 
was the true ancient critic. He was the restorer of ancient 
learning. "Defoe Period" p. 563 and 4. See here his 
Defoe paper on "Old Homer" where his "Alphabet of 
Nature," his "Capital Letter Cypher," is put to use. 
"Defoe Period" p. 517 to 521. Then see Addison Vol. 3 
p. 45 to 49. 

Having in Addison and Defoe touched but two of 
his "Grubean Sages" — his "Classic Authors in Wood" — 
we in his Swift's "Tale of a Tub" touch them all in a 



142 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

group. See in this our "Defoe Period," p. 587 to 605. 
It opens in these words, "To His Royal Highness Prince 
Posterity." 

This Prince is asked to protect from the ravages of 
the tyrant Time the writings soon to come, or to be 
opened to him. The full group of "Grubean Sages" 
are on page 81, using Everyman's Library edition, 
referred to thus: "We, whom the world is pleased to 
honor with the title of modern authors, would never 
have been able to compass our great design of an ever- 
lasting remembrance and never-dying fame, if our 
endeavors had not been so highly serviceable to the 
general good of mankind. This, O Universe! is the 
adventurous attempt of me thy secretary." 

And so "We" after all, was but "Me." I alone did 
the work, "O Universe!" As secretary to "Prince Pos- 
terity" I, Bacon, did it. 

He describes this "secretary for the whole department 
of life" in his "Phil. Works," by Spedding, Vol. 5, p. 
35. See Vol. 4, p. 278. Let this "Secretary" be kept in 
view throughout these writings. We have touched 
him already in connection with Cromwell and the Inde- 
pendents. 

This great reformer here urges upon posterity pro- 
tection for his vast literary carcass, his Posthumous 
Pocket labors — his New Golden Fleece. This sought 
protection from Time's tyranny is in full accord with 
his already considered Shakespeare Sonnets, reader. 

All of Swift's writings, let it be distinctly remembered 
including "A Tale of a Tub," were first put forth 
anonymously. As to the writings of Addison we quote 
from the preface of Bohn's edition of his works thus: 
"The only works he left behind him for the public, are 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 143 

the Dialogues upon Medals, and the Treaties upon the 
Christian Religion." The last mentioned, we think 
originally designed as an introduction to the Milton prose 
work in two volumes entitled "Christian Doctrine" 
which was a waif, and was pigeon-holed for nearly a 
century and a half. See introduction to Bohn's edition. 
Already have we called attention to the anonymous 
writings of Defoe. 

In both church and state Bacon followed the divine 
plan. He believed that God not only ruled the world 
in general; but that He, with a chosen people consisting 
of twelve tribes, set up a special government the doings 
of which were in general to be radiated upon society, He 
himself, being King; and that it continued unbroken 
to the time of Saul; since which kings have been His 
deputies on earth. This government he presents in his 
Milton's "Paradise Lost," beginning at page 260, using 
Everyman's Library edition, as we shall in this work. 

His "New Atlantis" follows this model. Its design 
was the renovation, or new flooring, of all human learn- 
ing. In other words he undertook to exercise "a provi- 
dence" over all literature and learning. 

Like the children of Israel, his "New Atlantis" con- 
sisted of twelve heads, and one concealed. See our 
"Defoe Period," in this p. 381 to 385. From its closing 
paragraph we have: "God bless thee, my son, and God 
bless this relation which I have made. I give thee 
leave to publish it for the good of other nations; for 
we here are in God's bosom, a land unknown." Were not 
his adherents members of it? How many became members 
subsequent to his fall? Did Cromwell belong? He was 
twenty-seven years of age at the time of Bacon's sup- 



144 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

posed death in 1626. He was a member of the Parlia- 
ment that convened January 20th, 1629. 

Again we say, as Aaron was secretary and mouth- 
piece to Moses; the only representative in God's govern- 
ment of the twelve tribes, so Bacon became secretary 
and secret adviser of Cromwell and the Independents 
during the great struggle that put Charles from the 
English throne. Note this "Lord chief Secretary" in 
"Bunyan's Holy War." As to the work of the 
Independents we from the preface of Vol. 1 of Milton's 
prose works quote thus: "For the first time perhaps, 
since the age of the apostles, Christianity was put in 
practice on a grand scale, by high-minded disinterested 
men, who sought in earnest to lay the foundations of 
an evangelical commonwealth, modelled in harmony 
with the precepts of the gospel, such as no other age or 
country ever yet aimed at." From the day of the re- 
storation of the English monarchy a pseudo-literary 
domination has prevailed over this literature. 

We now say to you, reader, that the letters and 
speeches of Oliver Cromwell were from Francis Bacon's 
own pen. We do not say Cromwell wrote no letters. 
But we do say, those that have come down to us, were 
cast, or recast by Bacon's own hand; and that he was 
their editor in the mentioned Carlyle work or waif. 
This was secret business for all concerned, John Milton 
included. Touching now this Chief Secretary; there 
were under secretaries; we from one of the Cromwell 
letters quote thus: 

"Secretary Thurloe, once St. John's Secretary in 
Holland, has come now, ever since the Little-Parliament 
time, into decided action as Oliver's Secretary, or the 
State Secretary; one of the expertest Secretaries, in the 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 145 

real meaning of the word Secretary, any State or working 
King could have. He deals with all these Plots; it is 
part of his function, supervised by his Chief. Mr. 
John Milton, we all lament to know, has fallen blind 
in the Public Service, Hves now in Bird-cage Walk, 
still doing a little when called upon; bating no jot of 
heart or hope. Mr. Milton's notion is, That this Pro- 
tectorate of his Highness Oliver was a thing called for 
by the Necessities and the Everlasting Laws; and that 
his Highness ought now to quit himself like a Christian 
Hero in it, as in other smaller things he has been used 
to do." "Carlyle's Cromwell," Everyman's Library 
edition Vol. 3, p. 5. And see p. 105. St. John on p. 20 
is said to be the political "dark-lantern." 

Some of the letters and speeches are said to be of 
Oliver's mind, but admitted to be in the hand of another, 
in the hand of his secretary. Let the set form in opening 
all the letters, as well as their acute concentration and 
brevity be noted. 

If now Bacon, as Oliver's secretary, framed these 
letters and speeches and was himself their editor, then 
must not our claim touching his morning drive to High- 
gate in 1626 page 127, be admitted, reader? 

Then let critics to their work, remembering ever that 
some of these writings have been seriously tampered 
with. This of itself casts doubt on Carlyle's authorship. 
Even the introductory pages to the Letters and Speeches 
are much garbled. We say these writings came to 
Carlyle as waifs, as left-overs, from the Bacon Budget. 
Some of the Defoe and other writings under review are 
concededly waifs, and tampered with. See our "Defoe 
Period," p. 441 to 447. And see p. 31 and 40. 



146 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Bacon's secret return to England must have been 
prior, we think, to 1640. May his retreat possibly have 
been at Lady Place? See " Knight's History of England," 
Vol. 4 p. 357. There is evidence that during his absence, 
he visited Italy. Did space permit we would gladly place 
the "Cromwell Letters and Speeches" into Baconian 
relation, as to mythology, theology, vocabulary, and as 
to a distinctive and unusual use throughout of capital 
letters, though these are more sparingly used here, than 
in the "Sartor Resartus" later to be called under review. 
The reader must remember that we but outline or 
bound the field; leaving our good Sir Knights to lend 
here their aid. In fact the basis and business for our 
projected brotherhood, our St. Alban Knights, or, if 
preferred, Knights of Atlantis, rest here. 

From the Carlyle waif the " Past and Present" we 
now touch the secret spring or point pushed at through- 
out the "Cromwell Letters and Speeches;" — to wit; 
"He is thy born king." From Everyman's Library 
edition of the work, p. 279, we quote thus: 

"Not a May-game is this man's life; but a battle 
and a march, a warfare with principalities and powers. 
No idle promenade through fragrant orange-groves and 
green flowery spaces, waited on by the choral Muses 
and the rosy Hours: it is a stern pilgrimage through 
burning sandy solitudes, through regions of thick- 
ribbed ice. He walks among men; loves men, with in- 
expressible soft pity, — as they cannot love him: but his 
soul dwells in solitude, in the uttermost parts of Creation. 
In green oases by the palm-tree wells, he rests a space; 
but anon he has to journey forward, escorted by the 
Terrors and the Splendours, the Archdemons and Arch- 
angels. All Heaven, all Pandemonium are his escort. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 147 

The stars keen-glancing, from the Immensities, send 
tidings to him; the graves, silent with their dead, from 
the Eternities. Deep calls for him unto Deep. 

"Thou, O World, how wilt thou secure thyself 
against this man? Thou canst not hire him by thy 
guineas; nor by thy gibbets and law-penalties restrain 
him. He eludes thee like a Spirit. Thou canst not 
forward him, thou canst not hinder him. Thy penalties, 
thy poverties, neglects, contumeHes: behold, all these 
are good for him. Come to him as an enemy; turn from 
him as an unfriend; only do not this one thing, — infect 
him not with thy own delusion: the benign Genius, 
were it by very death, shall guard him against this! — 
What wilt thou do with him.? He is above thee, like a 
god. Thou, in thy stupendous three-inch pattens, art 
under him. He is thy born king, thy conqueror and 
supreme lawgiver: not all the guineas and cannons, 
and leather and prunella, under the sky can save thee 
from him. Hardest thick-skinned Mammon-world, 
ruggedest Caliban shall obey him, or become not Caliban 
but a cramp. Oh, if in this man, whose eyes can flash 
Heaven's lightning, and make all Calibans into a cramp, 
there dwelt not, as the essence of his very being, a God's 
justice, human Nobleness, Veracity and Mercy, — I 
should tremble for the world. But his strength, let us 
rejoice to understand, is even this: The quantity of 
Justice, of Valour and Pity that is in him. To hypocrites 
and tailored quacks in high places his eyes are lightning; 
but they melt in dewy pity softer than a mother's to the 
downpressed, maltreated; in his heart, in his great 
thought, is a sanctuary for all the wretched. This 
world's improvement is forever sure. 'Man of genius.'" 
Thou hast small notion, meseems, O Maecenas Twiddle- 



148 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

dee, of what a Man of Genius is. Read in thy New 
Testament and elsewhere, — if, with floods of mealy- 
mouthed inanity; with miserable froth- vortices of Cant 
now several centuries old, thy New Testament is not all 
bedimmed for thee. Canst thou read in thy New Testa- 
ment at all? The Highest Man of Genius, knowest thou 
him; Godlike and a God to this hour.^ His crown a 
Crown of Thorns? Thou fool, with thy empty Godhoods, 
Apotheoses edge-gilt; the Crown of Thorns made into a 
poor jewel-room crown, fit for the head of blockheads; 
the bearing of the Cross changed to a riding in the 
Long-Acre Gig! Pause in thy mass-chantings, in thy 
litanyings, and Calmuck prayings by machinery; and 
pray, if noisily, at least in a more human manner. How 
with thy rubrics and dalmatics, and clothwebs and cob- 
webs, and with thy stupidities and grovelling base- 
heartedness, hast thou hidden the Holiest into all but 
invisibility! — 

'Man of Genius:' O Maecenas Twiddledee, hast 
thou any notion what a Man of Genius is? Genius is 
'the inspired gift of God.' It is the clearer presence of 
God Most High in a man. Dim, potential in all men; 
in this man it has become clear, actual. So says John 
Milton, who ought to be a judge; so answer him the 
Voices of all Ages and all Worlds." 

The chapter from which the foregoing comes is 
entitled "The Gifted." It should be read in full. Its 
word "He," in the expression "He is thy born King," 
we understand to be but a pronoun cover word for the 
author himself, a method already found used in the 
Sonnets. In them Bacon's right to the throne has 
already been touched. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 149 

If Carlyle be author of the feeble lecture on Cromwell 
in the "Hero Worship" then surely he was not author of 
the masterful Chapter from which our quotation comes; 
nor did he write that wonder, the "Sartor Resartus,"' 
soon to be reviewed. The word "forward" used in the 
foregoing will there be found ringing in the author's 
ears as an ever sounding sea. He there calls himself 
"The Son of Time." In some of the Swift writings he 
calls himself "the Great Unknown," Let the knowledge 
of mythology in the "Hero Worship," in Milton, in 
Shakespeare, be here called to Baconian relation. Re- 
turning to the "He is thy born King" we from the 
"Hero Worship," p. 345, quote thus: 

"Here, I say, is an English King, whom no time or 
chance. Parliament or combination of Parliaments, can 
dethrone! This King Shakspeare, does not he shine, in 
crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, 
yet strongest of rallying-signs; indestructible; really 
more valuable in that point of view than any other 
means of appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him as 
radiant aloft over all the Nations of Englishmen, a 
thousand years hence." By a chance Parliament it was 
that Bacon met his overthrow. He is here his own critic. 

Again, p. 340 touching sorrow expressed in his Shake- 
speare Sonnets we have: "Yet I call Shakespeare greater 
than Dante, in that he fought truly, and did conquer. 
Doubt it not, he had his own sorrows: those Sonnets of 
his will even testify expressly in what deep waters he 
has waded, and swum struggling for his life." 

And on p. 335 we have: "Of this Shakespeare of 
ours, perhaps the opinion one sometimes hears, a little 
idolatrously expressed is, in fact, the right one; I think 
the best judgment not of this country only, but of 



150 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Europe at large, is slowly pointing to the conclusion, 
that Shakespeare is the chief of all Poets hitherto; the 
greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left 
record of himself in the way of Literature. On the 
whole, I know not such a power of vision, such a faculty 
of thought, if we take all the characters of it, in any 
other man. Such a calmness of depth; placid joyous 
strength; all things imaged in that great soul of his so 
true and clear, as in a tranquil unfathomable sea! It 
has been said, that in the constructing of Shakespeare's 
Dramas there is, apart from all other 'faculties' as they 
are called, an understanding manifested, equal to that 
in Bacon's Novum Organum." 

A like laudation of his Shake-speare, himself behind 
the mask. Bacon presents in his Ben Jonson poem 
already touched in earlier pages. See p. 80. 

But would Francis Bacon thus openly as here make 
laudatory reference to his own name and work? This 
self-reference, self-laudation, see Sonnet 62, occurring in 
many places in these writings, and notably in his Addison, 
gives an opportunity to say here what we would con- 
cerning it. First, it tends to conceal the writer. Second, 
he in these writings chose to be his own critic, and say 
what he would of the works, overt or covert which he 
produced. No man knew better than Francis Bacon 
that, as to critics, the first makes the road, and the 
rest tread meekly therein. He sought to be a leader, a 
maker of the first path. He was covertly self-centered 
in all of his non-attributed work, let it be remembered. 

As to critics see his Addison, Vol. 4, p. 148 to 151, 
and 221 to 223. That he wore a mask during his entire 
labors, see, please, Vol. 2, p. 10 to 17. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 151 

In this connection we show where, in his own words, 
Bacon proclaimed his intention to make the world his 
heir. In the already mentioned Parliamentary speech 
concerning his "New Atlantis" and his great revenue 
project, he, among other things, says: 

"For by this unchargeable way, my lords, have I 
proposed to erect the academical fabric of this island's 
Solomon's House, modelled in my New Atlantis. And 
I can hope, my lords, that my midnight studies, to make 
our countries flourish and outvie European neighbors 
in mysterious and beneficent arts, have not so ungrate- 
fully eff^ected your noble intellects, that you may delay 
or resist his Majesty's desires, and my humble petition 
in this benevolent, yea, magnificent affair; since your 
honorable posterities may be enriched thereby, and my 
ends are only to make the world my heir, and the learned 
fathers of my Solomon's House, the successive and 
sworn trustees in the dispensation of this great service, 
for God's glory, my prince's magnificence, this parlia- 
ment's honor, our country's general good, and the pro- 
pagation of my own memory." No vision, note its 
"sworn trustees," and later its aims p. 95 and 154. 

He had earlier to Queen Elizabeth said in Sonnet 6 
that she would make worms her heir, if she failed of 
issue. 

It is indeed a sad thing that some of the most signifi- 
cant work Francis Bacon ever wrought should thus be 
kept out of sight. Were Dr. Rawley and others convers- 
ant with his cypher methods, members of this secret 
order, and "the good pens that forsake me not?" If 
there was ever a Baconian piece, this speech surely was 
one. We give it in full in our "Defoe Period" p. 18 to 
21. See then p. 234 to 237, and 589. We say it concerns 



152 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Bacon's secret South Sea revenue scheme, tacked to his 
"New Atlantis" and thwarted by the sharpers as set out 
in earher pages. Thinking this speech not Bacon's, Mr. 
Spedding fails to give it. Why, with his reasons did he 
not give it, and leave the reader to judge? See, please, 
why he fails to give it. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 7, p. 
199, 200. Then see p. 235. 

Are not its words "the propagation of my own 
memory" in full accord with Sonnet 55 and with his 
last will made but four months prior to his supposed 
death, wherein his "cabinets," "boxes," and "presses," 
are said to contain "that durable part of my memory, 
which consisteth of my works and writings." Posterity 
Drama! How unless with the "cabinets," "boxes," 
and "presses," reader, was Bacon to make the world his 
heir.? 

In his Carlyle waif, the "Hero Worship," p. 388, he, 
touching books, and the "Hero as Man of Letters" says: 
"Certainly the art of writing is the most miraculous of 
all things man has devised. Odin's Runes were the 
first form of the work of a Hero; Books, written words, 
are still miraculous Runes, of the latest form. In Books 
lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate 
audible voice of the Past, when the body and material 
substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream. 
Mighty fleets and armies, harbours and arsenals, vast 
cities, high-domed, many-engined, — they are precious, 
great: but what do they become? Agamemnon, the 
many Agamemnons, Pericleses, and their Greece; all is 
gone now to some ruined fragments, dumb, mournful 
wrecks and blocks; but the Books of Greece! There 
Greece, to every thinker, still very literally lives; can be 
called up again into life. No magic Rune is stranger 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 153 

than a Book. All that Mankind has done, thought, 
gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in 
the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession 

men. 

In them, in books, Bacon strove ever to reveal him- 
self; to reveal his mental accumulations; his mental 
clothing for the good of men. Ease, in the detail of his 
Art, as shown in his Shakespeare; in his Crusoe; in his 
Gulliver; in his "Holy War;" in his "New Atlantis;" in 
his Milton; made it ever a delight to him. He says 
"But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain 
in books, exempted from the injuries of time and cap- 
able of perpetual renovation." As to their protection 
from the injuries of time, let the reader turn to Milton's 
prose works, Bohn's edition, Vol. 2, p. 48 to 102 and read 
attentively the article entitled "Areopagitica." We 
will maintain Bacon's authorship of it against all critics. 

The article is structured against the restraint by 
law of the publication of books, which it claims first 
began with the inquisition of Rome, and on page 62 
we have: "Till then books were ever as freely admitted 
into the world as any other birth; the issue of the brain 
was no more stifled than the issue of the womb; no 
envious Juno sat cross-legged over the nativity of any 
man's intellectual offspring." The "New Organ," be 
it remembered, was first outlined as a birth, the birth of 
time. Fear of restraint upon publication of the author's 
own works rests here. 

The critics say the measured prose tread of Bacon 
shows he could not have been a great poet. Yet Milton, 
with the same prose tread; they crown as chief in that 
art. 



154 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

As in Shakespeare we have Bacon's scope treatise 
on mind or metaphysics; so in Milton we have his scope 
treatise on theology. The two claimed absentees, or 
missing links, from Bacon's great system here present 
themselves. 

From the Plays, the wilderness, the field of tempta- 
tion, we may now advance through varying pabulum to 
Milton, to Moses' chair; and thence to the Temple, or 
Solomon's House. 

Macaulay, of Bacon, says, "What he was as a natural 
philosopher and moral philosopher, that he was also as 
a theologian." Dr. Rawley, in his preface to Bacon's 
"New Atlantis" first published in 1627, the year follow- 
ing Bacon's supposed death, says: "This fable, my 
Lord devised, to the end that he might exhibit therein a 
model or description of a college instituted for the 
interpreting of nature and the producing of great and 
marvellous works for the benefit of men, under the 
name of Solomon's House, or the College of the Six 
Days Works." Let it now be called to direct relation 
with Milton's six days work of creation. From it, p. 146 
we quote: 

"Thus you see we maintain a trade, not for gold, 
silver, or jewels; nor for silks; nor for spices; nor any 
other commodity of matter; but only for God's first 
creature, which was Light; to have light (I say) of the 
growth of all parts of the world." 

Again: "The End of our Foundation is the know- 
ledge of Causes, and secret motions of things; and the 
enlarging of the bounds of Human Empire, to the effect- 
ing of all things possible." "Bacon's Phil. WWks," 
Vol. 3, p. 156. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 155 

By the "New Atlantis," Bacon's "Formula of Inter- 
pretation," his "Time's best jewel" of Sonnet 65 was, 
we say, to be borne undisclosed to posterity. Its wonder 
resides in its scale of ascending and descending axioms 
found by means of his "Tables of Discovery" eternized 
in Sonnet 122. This as yet undisclosed "Formula" is the 
light itself of his "New Organ;" his new system of 
induction. The system can be opened only by means 
of it. This "Formula" is its only door. There is no 
climbing up or entrance to the system in any other way. 

The system opens in an investigation into the origin 
or law of light, which Bacon says "is God's first creature." 
It begins with transparent bodies, as water, glass, crystal, 
etc. By change in the configuration of their particles, 
he at once moves to colors, as by whipping water or 
pounding glass, they thus become white; the union of 
all colors. He finds the secrets of nature to lie in configu- 
ration. He says: "Knowledge of the configuration of 
bodies is as new a thing as the discovery of forms." 
All color in bodies results from difference in configura- 
tion. "For all color is the broken image of light," says 
Bacon. This field, fully traced will show the wonders in 
nature which lie in colors. Objects to the mind, and our 
dealings with them, make up our existence. If all color 
be removed from an object, to human ken, remove 
we not the object? We here touch Bacon's subtle, his 
distinctive views concerning matter and substance. He 
speaks ever of the substance of the human soul; the 
substance of the divine. This subtlety may be traced in 
all of the works here called under review, Milton 
included. Manifestations to sense are ever products of 
motion, with Bacon's views; and this he applies to light 
as to all other parts of operating nature. Touching the 



156 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

origin itself, of light, Bacon says; "There has been no 
inquiry." Touching this; touching configuration; and 
touching "the freeing of a direction to find the form" or 
law of light; or any one of the "simple natures," see 
please our presentation at page 67 to 71. 

This brings us to a definite point. Returning to 
transparent bodies, the reader may have noticed that 
we did not mention air. "Air" says Bacon "is a per- 
manent body." It is not subject to the changes in nature 
of other transparent bodies. It is not compounded. It 
never forsakes its fluidity. It is the body through which 
all other bodies in nature are seen. And so from his 
Milton, using herein Everyman's Library edition, we, 
from page 103 touching air, quote thus: 

"Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth 
Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run 
Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix 
And nourish all things, let your ceaseless change 
Vary to our great Maker still new praise." 

See "O ancient Powers of Air," page 274. See then 
Bacon on air, "Phil. Works," Vol. 5, p. 460 to 500. 
And on p. 315 we have: "Therefore, whereas flame is a 
momentary and air a fixed substance, the living spirit 
partakes of the nature of both." Let air in this sense in 
the Plays be traced from "Areal," in "The Tempest," 
to that "most tender air" in act 5 scene 4 and 5 of 
"Cymbeline." 

Trace air and fire in Sonnet 45, "the first my thought, 
the other my desire." We in this Sonnet have Bacon's 
strange word "recured," and explained in Milton p. 264. 
We find Bacon using such expressions as "the wombs 
of the elements," "the womb of nature," "the womb of 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 157 

earth," "the womb of time," "the bosom of nature," 
"nature is God's art," "mind is the divine fire," "heat 
and cold are nature's two hands," "the church is the 
eye of England," "divinity is the art of arts," "the 
human mind is the seat of providence," "God's stage," 
"God's theatre," "God's curtain," "God's placets," 
"the substance of the human soul," "the substance of 
the divine" and the like. 

Touching Bacon's use of this word "substance," see 
our presentation at p. 75 and 155. And from the angel 
Rapheal's speech to Adam in Milton p. 110 we have: 

"O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom 
All things proceed, and up to him return. 
If not depraved from good, created all 
Such to perfection; one first matter all, 
Endued with various forms, various degrees 
Of substance, and, in things that live, of life; 
But more refined, more spirituous and pure, 
As nearer to him placed or nearer tending 
Each in their several active spheres assigned, 
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds 
Proportioned to each kind. So from the root 
Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the 

leaves 
More aery, last the bright consummate flower 
Spirits odorous breathes: flowers and their fruit, 
Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, 
To vital spirits aspire, to animal, 
To intellectual; give both life and sense, 
Fancy and understanding; whence the Soul 
Reason receives, and Reason is her being, 
Discursive, or Intuitive: Discourse 



158 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, 
Differing but in degree, of kind the same. 
Wonder not, then, what God for you saw good 
If I refuse not, but convert, as you. 
To proper substance." 

This is a Bacon text reader, from which a volume 
might be written. The thoughts involved in it are all 
found in chapter 3, book 4 of Bacon's "De Augmentis." 
Touching the word "substance," we quote him thus: 
"The doctrine concerning the breath of life, as well as 
the doctrine concerning the substance of the rational 
soul, includes those inquiries touching its nature, — 
whether it be native or adventive, separable or insepar- 
able, mortal or immortal, how far it is tied to the laws 
of matter, how far exempted from them; and the like." 
"Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 397. As to "divine substance" 
see Milton page 31, 37, 88, 130. 

Touching the "To vital spirits aspire, to animal, to 
intellectual," see please, our "Defoe Period" p. 52 to 57, 
where we give full Baconian proofs in this. 

Note now in Raphael's speech that "Reason" in 
the angels is "Intuitive," while in Adam it is "Dis- 
cursive," that is, by way of "Discourse." So in Hamlet 
we have "A beast that wants discourse of reason would 
have mourned longer." As to the difference between 
human reason, and the sagacity of brutes, Bacon says: 
"Again, let the nature in question be "Discourse of 
Reason." "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 179. So we have 
it in Bacon, in Milton, and in the plays. 

"Discourse of Reason"! Where, reader, save in the 
writings under review, will be found this most distinctive 
expression ? 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 159 

Animal life, though conscious, is not self-conscious. 
That wonder, instinctive intelligence, though working 
through the animal, is still not of it. The formative 
vessels that structure and sustain its body, show even 
more wonder than that manifested in its outer Hfe. 
The dog it is true may seek the lowest point to jump 
the fence. So when a bone is broken, the formative 
vessels will step outside their usual work and repair the 
breech. Self-conscious life starts at zero; and by culture, 
widens ever. Instinct improves not upon its methods. 
The animal is born with its gifts. The bird builds its 
first nest; the bee its first comb; as perfectly as they 
can ever build them. A kitten dropped into water, 
before ever its eyes have been opened to its surroundings, 
will swim; and as perfectly as it can ever swim. The 
babe, so dropped, drowns at once. It must stay for 
culture. The first breath of the chick bursts its prison 
walls, and within an hour it struts forth with its perfected 
gifts. Existence presents us with but three orders of 
intelligence; instinctive, ideational, creative. Creative 
intelligence structures and sustains objects to the mind. 
Ideational intelligence is self-conscious of, and deals 
with them, has "discourse of reason." Instinct here is 
broken up and functions into self-consciousness, into 
self-hood. The mere animal, though conscious, cannot 
differentiate its Hfe from its environments. Until this 
line be broken, biology remains unsolved. Forces 
unseen back every manifestation to sense-. You here 
have our own speech, reader, touching Instinct. 

Again, on the previous page, in Milton, p. 109, we 
have: 

"For know, whatever was created needs 

To be sustained and fed. Of Elements 



160 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

The grosser feeds the purer; Earth the Sea; 
Earth and the Sea feed Air; the Air those Fires 
Ethereal, and, as lowest, first the Moon; 
Whence in her visage round those spots, unpurged 
Vapours not yet into her substance turned. 
Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale 
From her moist continent to higher Orbs. 
The Sun, that light imparts to all, receives 
From all his alimental recompense 
In humid exhalations, and at even 
Sups with the Ocean." 

As to this feeding of the elements we from "Timon 
of Athens," Act 4, Scene 3 quote thus: 

"The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction 
Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief. 
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun: 
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves 
The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief, 
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n 
From general excrement." 

Note this word "excrement" as used in the plays, 
and in Bacon's attributed works. It will be found a 
good point in the proof of authorship. Note "excre- 
mentitious moisture." Sweat, nails, hair, and feathers, 
treated as excrements. In feathers study colors. 

As to the words "Of Elements the grosser feeds the 
purer," we quote Bacon thus: "For in proportion as 
substances degenerate in purity and freedom of develop- 
ment, so do their motions degenerate. Now it happens, 
that as in point of velocity the higher planets move 
faster, and the lower less fast; so also the higher planets 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 161 

make spirals more closely coincident and coming nearer 
to circles, the lower make spirals more disjoined and 
further apart. For continually as they descend they 
recede more and more both from that height of velocity 
and that perfection of circular motion, in regular order." 
"Phil. Works," Vol. 5, p. 553, and see p. 539. 

As to "those fires Ethereal, and as lowest, first the 
Moon," we in connection with Sonnet 107 have shown 
that Bacon regarded the moon as lowest down, and as 
the last sediment of earthly, and the first rudiment of 
heavenly, or self-sustained flame; and that at the height 
or body of the moon flame first begins to roll itself into 
globes, while at the sun, flame is on her throne. See p. 110. 

Bacon's knowledge came rather from grounds or 
notions within himself, than from books, said Dr. 
Rawley. Touching the origin itself of light see Bacon's 
views in our presentation at page 74. And in his Milton, 
see please, p. 151. And on p. 153 we have: 

"For, of celestial bodies, first the Sun 
A mighty sphere he framed, unlightsome first. 
Though of ethereal mould; then formed the Moon 
Globose, and every magnitude of Stars, 
And sowed with stars the heaven thick as a field. 
Of light by far the greater part he took. 
Transplanted form her cloudy shrine, and placed 
In the Sun's orb, made porous to receive 
And drink the liquid light, firm to retain 
Her gathered beams, great palace now of Light. 
Hither, as to their fountain, others stars 
Repairing in their golden urns draw light, 
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns; 
By tincture or reflection they augment 



162 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Their small peculiar, though, from human sight 

So far remote, with diminution seen. 

First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, 

Regent of day, and all the horizon round 

Invested with bright rays, jocund to run 

His longitude through heaven's high road; the grey 

Dawn, and the Pleiades, before him danced, 

Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the Moon 

But opposite in levelled west, was set. 

His mirror, with full face borrowing her light 

From him; for other light she needed none 

In that aspect, and still that distance keeps 

Till night; then in the east her turn she shines, 

Revolved on heaven's great axle, and her reign 

With thousand lesser lights dividual holds. 

With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared 

Spangling the hemisphere." 

We touch the word "jocund" in the foregoing, as 
Bacon uses it in the Plays, in the "Pilgrim's Progress," 
in the "Sartor Resartus" and throughout these writings. 
He says: "With arts voluptuary I couple arts jocular; 
for the deceiving of the senses is one of the pleasures of 
the senses." "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 395. In his 
"Romeo and Juliet," he says: 

"Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." 

In the "Pilgrim's Progress," "Now when Feeble- 
mind and Ready-to-halt saw that it was the head of 
Giant Despair indeed, they were very jocund and merry." 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 163 

Touching now the earth itself we from Milton, p. 
151 have: 

"The Earth was formed, but, in the womb as yet 
Of waters, embryon immature, involved. 
Appeared not; over all the face of Earth 
Main ocean flowed, not idle, but, with warm 
Prolific humour softening all her globe. 
Fermented the great mother to conceive, 
Satiate with genial moisture; when God said, 
'Be gathered now, ye waters under heaven. 
Into one place, and let dry land appear'!" 

Note here the earth, as mother of the system. In 
his view of the heavens, or on celestial motions. Bacon 
differed from all writers either of his own, or of the 
present day. Those under review, being his, are in 
accord. Contrary to the established, or Copernican 
system. Bacon believed that the earth and not the sun, 
was its center; and that the heavens revolved about it, 
as a center. He says: "For let no one hope to decide 
the question whether it is the earth or heaven that 
really revolves in the diurnal motion, until he has first 
comprehended the nature of spontaneous rotation." 
"Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 123. His "Theory of the 
Heavens" should now be read in full. See " Phil. Works," 
Vol. 5, p. 547 to 560. From its opening paragraph we 
have: 

"I will myself therefore construct a Theory of the 
Universe, according to the measure of the history as 
yet known to us; keeping my judgment however in all 
points free, for the time when history, and by means of 
history my inductive philosophy, shall have been 
further advanced. Wherein I will first propound some 



164 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

things respecting the matter of the heavenly bodies, 
whereby their motion and construction may be better 
understood; and then I will bring forward my thoughts 
and views concerning the motion itself, which is now 
the principal question. It seems then that nature has 
in the distribution of matter separated fine bodies from 
gross; and assigned the globe of the earth to the gross, 
and the whole space from the surface of the earth and 
waters to the very extremities of the heaven, to the 
fine or pneumatic, as the two primary classes of things, 
in proportions not equal indeed, but suitable." 

A little further on he says: "The pneumatic bodies 
which are found here with us (I speak of such as exist 
simple and perfect, not compound and imperfectly 
mixed), are those two, "Air and Flame." See, please, 
Sonnet 45. Note "naked," not compounded. 

A sentence or two further on we have, "Now for 
these two great families of things, the Airy and the 
Flamy; we have to inquire upon what conditions they 
have taken possession of by far the greatest part of the 
universe, and what office they have in the system. In 
the air next the earth, flame only lives for a moment, 
and at once perishes. But when the air begins to be 
cleared of the exhalations of the earth and well rarefied, 
the nature of flame makes divers trials and experiments 
to attain consistency therein, and sometimes acquires a 
certain duration, not by succession as with us, but in 
identity; as happens for a time in some of the lower 
comets, which are of a kind of middle nature between 
successive and consistent flame; it does not however 
become fixed or constant, till we come to the body of 
the Moon. There flame ceases to be extinguishable, 
and in some way or other supports itself." We return 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 165 

to bodies "such as exist simple," not compounded. 
These concern "the simple natures." Bacon says: "For 
all compounds (to one that considers them rightly) are 
masked and clothed; and there is nothing properly 
naked except the primary particles of things." From 
his Essay on "Cupid; or, an Atom." See "naked," 
"Defoe Period" p. 42, please. Note that Bacon used 
word "Compound," here, in the plays, and throughout. 
InSonnetTl we have "When I perhaps compounded am 
with clay." See also Sonnet 118 and 125. 

Touching now the earth as stationary, we, page 551, 
have "The earth then being stationary (for that I now 
think the truer opinion), it is manifest that the heaven 
revolves in a diurnal motion, the measure whereof is 
the space of twenty-four hours or thereabouts, the 
direction from east to west, the axis of revolution 
certain points (which they call poles) north and south." 
A sentence or two earlier he says: "I shall not stand 
upon that piece of mathematical elegance, the reduction 
of motions to perfect circles, either eccentric or con- 
centric, or that high speech, that the earth in comparison 
to heaven is a point and not a quantity, or many other 
fictitious inventions of astronomers; but remit them to 
calculations and tables." Also see, "Phil. Works," 
Vol. 4, p. 348 to 373. 

We now permit Francis Bacon to place the above 
points on "celestial motions" into the mouth of our 
first parent, Adam. This he does in his Milton, "Para- 
dise Lost." Book 8, p. 161 where we have: 

"When I behold this goodly frame, this World, 
Of Heaven and Earth consisting, and compute 
Their magnitudes — this Earth, a spot, a grain. 



166 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

An atom, with the Firmament compared 

And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll 

Spaces incomprehensible (for such 

Their distance argues, and their swift return 

Diurnal) merely to officiate light 

Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot, 

One day and night, in all their vast survey 

Useless besides — reasoning, I oft admire 

How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit 

Such disproportions, with superfluous hand 

So many nobler bodies to create. 

Greater so manifold, to this one use, 

For aught appears, and on their Orbs impose 

Such restless revolution day by day 

Repeated, while the sedentary Earth 

That better might with far less compass move, 

Served by more noble than herself, attains 

Her end without least motion, and receives, 

As tribute, such a sumless journey brought 

Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light: 

Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.' 

Raphael replies to Adam, page 162, thus: 

"To ask or search I blame thee not; for Heaven 
Is as the Book of God before thee set. 
Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn 
His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years 
This to attain, whether Heaven move or Earth 
Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest 
From Man or Angel the great Architect 
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge 
His secrets, to be scanned by them who ought 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 167 

Rather admire. Or, If they list to try 
Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heavens 
Hath left to their disputes — perhaps to move 
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide 
Hereafter, when they come to model heaven, 
And calculate the stars; how they will wield 
The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive 
To save appearances; how gird the Sphere 
With Centric and Eccentric scribbled o'er, 
Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb. 
Already by thy reasoning this I guess, 
Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest 
That bodies bright and greater should not serve 
The less not bright, nor Heaven such journeys run. 
Earth sitting still, when she alone receives 
The benefit. Consider, first, that great 
Or bright infers not excellence. The Earth, 
Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small, 
Nor glistering, may of solid good contain 
More plenty than the Sun that barren shines, 
Whose virtue on Itself works no effect, 
But In the fruitful Earth; there first received, 
His beams, unactive else, their vigour find. 
Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries 
Officious, but to thee, Earth's habitant. 
And, for the Heaven's wide circuit, let It speak 
The Maker's high magnificence, who built 
So spacious, and his line stretched out so far. 
That Man may know he dwells not in his own — 
An edifice too large for him to fill. 
Lodged in a small partition, and the rest 
Ordained for uses to his Lord best known. 



168 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

The swiftness of those Circles attribute, 
Though numberless, to his omnipotence. 
That to corporeal substances could add 
Speed almost spiritual." 

The genesis of his own great mission, Bacon places 
later in Adam's speech, p. 167 to 179. Did space permit 
we would gladly particularize the foregoing speech. 

Many of the Psalms Bacon turned into verse. From 
the 104th, touching the mentioned unmoving or "seden- 
tary earth," we quote him thus: 

"In the beginning, with a mighty hand, 
He made the earth by counterpoise to stand; 
Never to move, but to be fixed still; 
Yet hath no pillars but his sacred will." 
"Literary Works" by Spedding, Vol. 2, p. 281. 

Touching now this "counterpoise," this pendant 
earth, we from Milton p. 98 quote thus: 

"Wherein all things created first he weighed. 
The pendulous round Earth with balanced air 
In counterpoise, now ponders all events. 
Battles and realms." 

As to this "pendulous round earth," and "this 
balanced air," in Milton, Bacon says: "And let not any 
unskillful person be astonished if it be made a question 
whether globes of compact matter can remain pendulous. 
For both the earth itself floats pendulous in the middle 
of the surrounding air, which is an exceedingly soft 
thing; and great masses of watery clouds and stores of 
hail hang in the regions of the air, whence they are 
rather forced down than fall of themselves, before they 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 169 

begin to feel the neighbourhood of the earth." "Phil. 
Works," Vol. 5, p. 537. See also Vol. 4, p. 425, where 
we have: "Inquire whether the quantity of a body can 
be so increased as entirely to lose the motion of gravity; 
as in the earth, which is pendulous, but falls not." 

Points like these, we could quote until the reader was 
tired, did space permit. In his Milton, Bacon details 
briefly his knowledge touching both the scriptures and 
his distinctive philosophy of the heavens. He says 
"knowledge is the image of existence." We say, Milton 
is the image of his knowledge. In any event, reader, we 
here give you some bits of good literature. 

What value has a critic's opinion, as to the 
authorship of this great work who has never spent an 
hour in the investigation of the subtle questions here 
under review.? 

The earth Bacon believed to be the mother of nature; 
and that all radiations into space came from, and would 
ultimately return to her; and that she was both nature's 
womb and tomb. And so in his "Romeo and Juliet," 
Act 2, Scene 3, we have: 

"The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb; 
What is her burying grave, that is her womb; 
And from her womb children of divers kind 
We sucking on her natural bosom find: 
Many for many virtues excellent, 
None but for some, and yet all different." 

Touching now this "womb," and "tomb" or grave of 
nature, see Milton, page 51. And in his "Hamlet," Act. 
2, Scene 2, Bacon says: 

"This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile 
promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look 



170 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical 
roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing 
to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." 

None of nature's powers seemed more mysterious to 
Bacon than those of the winds. See please, our "Defoe 
Period," p. 40 to 52. They concern final causes and 
are handled alike by all of the Sages. Note the sub- 
terranean and other winds throughout. See p. 150, 213, 
222, 232 and 319 in Milton. 

The reader may of certainty, know Bacon's author- 
ship of Milton if he will but famaliarize himself with 
Bacon's "Theory of the Heavens;" with his brief 
Histories of "Dense and Rare;" "History of the 
Winds;" "History of Life and Death;" "Description 
of the Intellectual Globe;" and his "Principles and 
Origins According to the Fables of Cupid and Coelum." 

The last mentioned subject as to the two ancient 
"Fables," Bacon opens thus: "It is of the elder that 
I am now going to speak. They say then that this Love 
was the most ancient of all the gods, and therefore of 
all things else, except Chaos, which they hold to be coeval 
with him. He is without any parent of his own; but 
himself united with Chaos begat the gods and all things. 
By some however it is reported that he came of an egg 
that was laid by Nox." Again, "But his principal 
and peculiar power is exercised in uniting bodies; the 
keys likewise of the air, earth, and sea were entrusted 
to him." Again, "This Chaos then, which was contem- 
porary with Cupid, sifrnified the rude mass or congre- 
gation of matter." "Phil. Works," Vol. 5, p. 461. 
On page 468 he says: "For it is not written that God 
in the beginning created matter, but that he created 
the heaven and the earth." Creation then was the call- 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 171 

ing of the forces of Chaos into order, and thereafter 
their government. See Milton, p. 150. 

Ever in Bacon's sense of use we now touch "Chaos," 
"Nox," "Hot, Cold, Moist and Dry," in Milton. 
See "Chaos," Milton, p. 9, 50 to 57. And on p. 50 
we have: 

"Before their eyes in sudden view appear 

The secrets of the hoary Deep — a dark 

Illimitable ocean, without bound. 

Without dimension; where length, breadth, and highth, 

And time, and place, are lost; where eldest Night 

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 

Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 

For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce. 

Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 

Their embryon atoms: they around the flag 

Of each his faction, in their several clans. 

Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, 

Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 

Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil. 

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere 

He rules a moment: Chaos umpire sits. 

And by decision more embroils the fray 

By which he reigns: next him, high arbiter. 

Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, 

The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, 

Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire, 

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 

Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight. 

Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 

His dark materials to create more worlds." 



172 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

Let now the mentioned "Hot, Cold, Moist and Dry," 
be carefully noted, as we shall later call them to proof 
relation with Bacon's "Capital Letter Cypher." 

"Chaos," in Milton, represents a contending or 
warring period of the elements prior to creation; that is, 
prior to the six days work. Their contending grounds, 
is what Bacon calls "the middle region of the air." The 
good, the unembodied guardian spirits of this region, we 
touch later in Chapter 5. As to the warring of the 
mentioned elements of "Hot, Cold, Moist and Dry," 
see "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 1, p. 124; and "Phil. Works," 
Vol. 5, p. 479, 480, 532 and 533. Note "moist and dry" 
on page 489. As to dense and rare, we on page 477 
have: 

"That density and rarity are but the textures and, 
as it were, the webs of heat and cold, heat and cold 
being the producers and operatives thereof; cold con- 
densing and thickening the work, heat separating and 
extending it." 

Bacon as already stated, says: "Heat and cold are 
Nature's two hands." Note the emphasis upon these 
two words throughout Milton. Note these two tables 
in his "New Organ." 

Returning to the "four champions fierce," "Hot, 
Cold, Moist and Dry" we quote Bacon thus: "I shall 
speak presently upon the question, whether the stars 
are real fire; and more fully and accurately in my precepts 
concerning the history of Virtues, where I shall treat of 
the origins and cradles of Heat and Cold, a subject 
hitherto unknown and untouched by men." "Phil. 
Works," Vol. 5, p. 533. Then see p. 509. 

The mentioned "History of Virtues" is a reference 
direct to what constitutes Bacon's great "Alphabet of 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 173 

Nature." He of it says, "This is a history reserved to 
myself." "Phil. Works," Vol. 5, p. 135; see p. 208, 
426, 509 and 510. See also "Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 29 
and 262. It concerns the already mentioned forms or 
laws of "the simple natures." They constitute the 
"Alphabet" and will be touched later. Let the student 
of English literature pause here for reflection. 

As to the mentioned contending grounds; or Bacon's 
"middle region of the air," we from Milton p. 288 quote 
thus: 

"For Satan, with sly preface to return. 
Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone 
Up to the middle region of thick air, 
Where all his Potentates in council sat. 
There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy. 
Solicitous and blank, he thus began: — 
Princes, Heaven's ancient Sons, Ethereal Thrones — 
Demonian Spirits now, from the element 
Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called. 
Powers of Fire, Air, Water and Earth beneath. 
(So may we hold our place and these mild seats 
Without new trouble!)" 

Touching now the mentioned "Powers of Fire, Air, 
Water and Earth beneath," Bacon says: "There is needed 
a history of the Common Masses of Matter, which I call 
the Greater Colleges (commonly called the Elements); for 
I find there are no accounts of fire, air, earth and water, 
with their natures, motions, operations, and impressions, 
such as to form a just body of history." "Phil. Works," 
Vol. 4, p. 299. 

If the reader has not found Bacon in Milton, it is 
simply because he has failed to investigate a subtle 
subject. 



174 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Having touched briefly Bacon's astronomy and 
philosophy, in Milton, we turn next to mythology, the 
cradle in which Francis Bacon rocked his "new born 
child," his philosophy, from the beginning. It was 
rocked, however, in its restored or Hebrew, instead of 
in the Greek cradle, reader. 

Bacon believed the Greek fables, in other words the 
Greek mythology, to be of Hebrew origin, but corrupted 
by the Greeks. To restore what he thought their true 
interpretation was the business of his "Wisdom of the 
Ancients." As an example, see first his restored inter- 
pretation of the fable "Cupid; or an Atom"; then of the 
fable "Pan." We from it quote thus: 

"The ancients have given under the person of Pan 
an elaborate description of universal nature. His 
parentage they leave in doubt. Some call him the son 
of Mercury; others assign him an origin altogether 
different; saying that he was the offspring of a promiscu- 
ous intercourse between Penelope and all her suitors. 
But in this the name of Penelope has doubtless been 
foisted by some later author into the original fable. 
For it is no uncommon thing to find the more ancient 
narrations transferred to persons and names of later 
dates; sometimes absurdly and stupidly, as in this 
instance; for Pan was one of the oldest gods, and long 
before the times of Ulysses; and Penelope was for her 
matronly chastity held in veneration by antiquity." 

Touching the fable itself he says: "A noble fable 
this, if there be any such; and big almost to bursting 
with the secrets and mysteries of Nature. 

Pan, as the very word declares, represents the uni- 
versal frame of things, or Nature. About his origin 
there are and can be but two opinions: for Nature is 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 175 

either the offspring of Mercury — that is of the Divine 
Word (an opinion which the Scriptures establish beyond 
question, and which was entertained by all the more 
divine philosophers) : or else of the seeds of things mixed 
and confused together. For they who derive all things 
from a single principle, either take that principle to be 
God, or if they hold it to be a material principle, assert 
it to be though actually one yet potentially many; so 
that all difference of opinion on this point is reducible to 
one or other of these two heads, — the world is sprung 
either from Mercury, or from all the suitors. He sang, 
says Virgil, 

How through the void of space the seeds of things 
Came first together; seeds of the sea, land, air. 
And the clear fire; how from these elements 
All embryos grew, and the great world itself 
Swelled by degrees and gathered in its globe. 

The third account of the generation of Pan, might 
make one think that the Greeks had heard something, 
whether through the Egyptians or otherwise, concerning 
the Hebrew mysteries; for it applies to the state of the 
world, not at its very birth, but as it was after the fall 
of Adam, subject to death and corruption. For that 
state was the offspring of God and Sin, — and so remains. 
So that all three stories of the birth of Pan (if they be 
understood with a proper distinction as to facts and 
times) may be accepted as indeed true. For true it is 
that this Pan, whom we behold and contemplate and 
worship only too much, is sprung from the Divine Word, 
through the medium of confused matter (which is itself 
God's creature), and with the help of sin and corruption 
entering in. 



176 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

To the Nature of things, the Fates or destinies of 
things are truly represented as sisters. For natural 
causes are the chain which draws after it the births and 
durations and deaths of all things, their fallings and 
risings, their labours and felicities: — in short all the 
fates that can befall them." Bacon's "Literary Works" 
by Spedding, Vol. 1, p. 707 and 709. 

Bacon here presents an example of his interpretation, 
weeding, and reverence for, these fables. It should be 
read in full. That he did not beUeve them of Greek 
origin, clearly appears from his introduction to the 
work. From it, page 697, we have: "But the con- 
sideration which has most weight with me is this, that 
few of these fables were invented, as I take it, by those 
who recited and made them famous, — Homer, Hesiod, 
and the rest." See now our "Defoe Period," p. 518 to 
521. 

These fables served as a kind of framework upon 
which to hang his literary doings. They concern his 
"places of invention." In the foregoing quotation note 
his strange words as to the fall of Adam," for that state 
was the offspring of God and Sin, — and so remains." 
This he explains in his Milton p. 61, 46 to 55 and 234. 
See p. 212, 221 to 227 and 264 to 267. On p. 265 it is 
said "Sin and Death" are Satan's "two main arms." 
Did Bacon believe that sin is, and was designed to be, 
the carver of human life .? See Sonnet 1 19. 

Touching now "the ways to death," see Milton, p. 
244 to 249. In Bacon's "History of Life and Death," 
note this distinctive expression "the ways to death," 
also "the porches of death." Bacon's "Phil. Works," 
Vol. 5, p. 222, 311, 315, or, our "Defoe Period," p. 58 
and 60. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 177 

In the introduction to Bacon's crowning work his 
"Novum Organum," he, as to the fable Scylla, says: 
"So that the state of learning as it now is, appears to 
be represented to the life in the old fable of Scylla, who 
had the head and face of a virgin, but her womb was 
hung round with barking monsters, from which she 
could not be delivered. For in like manner the sciences 
to which we are accustomed have certain general posi- 
tions which are specious and flattering; but as soon as 
they come to particulars, which are as the parts of 
generation, when they should produce fruit and works, 
then arise contentions and barking disputations, which 
are the end of the matter and all the issue they can yield." 
" Phil. Works," Vol. 4, p. 14. Bacon made these fables 
forms upon which to hang ideas. He thus made ideas 
quick, vivid and retentive. In his interpretation of 
this fable, in his "Wisdom of the Ancients," he says it 
furnishes "reflections without end." In his technical 
sense of use he touches it in his Milton p. 44 thus: 

"Before the gates there sat 
On either side a formidable Shape. 
The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 
But ended foul in many a scaly fold, 
Voluminous and vast — a serpent armed 
With mortal sting. About her middle round 
A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
A hideous peal; yet, when they list, would creep. 
If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb. 
And kennel there; yet there still barked and howled 
Within unseen." See p. 48. 



178 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

The most ancient of these fables seem to have im- 
pressed Bacon with extreme reverence and as if they con- 
cerned fixed laws of being. And so in, Book 7 of "Para- 
dise Lost," p. 145 we have: 

"Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name 
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine 
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, 
Above the flight of Pegasean wing! 
The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou 
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top 
Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heavenly-born. 
Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed. 
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse. 
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play 
In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased 
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee. 
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, 
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air. 
Thy tempering. With like safety guided down. 
Return me to my native element; 
Lest, from this flying steed unreined (as once 
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime) 
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall. 
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn. 
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound 
Within the visible Diurnal Sphere. 
Standing on Earth, not rapt above the pole, 
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged 
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days, 
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues, 
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round. 
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 179 

Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when Morn 
Purples the East. Still govern thou my song, 
Urania, and fit audience find, though few. 
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance 
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race 
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard 
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears 
To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned 
Both harp and voice, nor could the Muse defend 
Her son. So fail not thou who thee implores; 
For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream." 

Touching now Bacon's views of Hesperian fables or 
"gardens of the Muses," see please, Milton, p. 80; 
our "Defoe Period," p. 197. In his "Essay on Gar- 
dens," he says: "God Almighty first planted a gar- 
den. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures." 
In his "Natural History," note his wonderful knowledge 
of flowers, trees and gardens. Note here the second 
period, or story but half told. 

To show, in addition to our earlier quotation from him 
that Bacon regarded the Greek fables not of Greek, but 
of Hebrew origin, we, from his Milton, p. 317 quote thus: 

"All our Law and Story strewed 
With hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed, 
Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon 
That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare 
That rather Greece from us these arts derived — 
111 imitated while they loudest sing 
The vices of their deities, and their own, 
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating 
Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame. 
Remove their swelling epithets, thick-laid 



180 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest, 

Thin-sown with aught of profit or delight, 

Will far be found unworthy to compare 

With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling, 

Where God is praised aright and godlike men. 

The Holiest of Holies and his Saints 

(Such are from God inspired, not such from thee); 

Unless where moral virtue is expressed 

By light of Nature, not in all quite lost. 

Their Orators thou then extoU'st as those 

The top of eloquence — statists indeed. 

And lovers of their country, as may seem; 

But herein to our Prophets far beneath. 

As men divinely taught, and better teaching 

The solid rules of civil government. 

In their majestic, unaffected style, 

Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. 

In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt, 

What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so. 

What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat; 

These only, with our Law, best form a king." 

This government with its great senate, its single 
legislative body, is described in Milton p. 260. See it 
set forth now in his prose works, Vol. 2, p. 108 to 138 
for the government of England following the execution 
of the King, Charles the 1st. 

From the foregoing it may be clearly seen, touching 
mythology or these fables, "That rather Greece from us 
these arts derived." In other words, from the Hebrews, 
rather than the Greeks, these fables took their origin. 
This surely was the opinion of the author of Milton, 
whoever he may have been. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 181 

Returning now to "Urania" in the first of these 
quotations, let it be noted that it is that which she 
personates, that is intended to be addressed. Murray 
in his "Mythology," p. 140 says: "The proper home of 
Themis was Olympus, and hence she was styled Urania." 
He continues: "She was a personification of divine 
will as it bore upon the affairs of the world, and ac- 
cordingly the Delphic oracle had been under her control 
before it was yielded to Apollo, to whom, as her suc- 
cessor, she communicated the prophetic art." She was 
the Muse of astronomy, see p. 179. 

It may thus be observed, she was of an earlier origin 
than Apollo. He becomes now the leader of the nine 
Muses, and on p. 177 Murray says: 

"In addition to the usual nine we hear of three other 
Muses — Melete, Mneme, and Aoede, who are described 
as daughters of Uranus, and supposed to have existed 
from the earliest times. As, however, both Homer and 
Hesiod appear to know only the number nine, we may 
assume that the belief in the existence of the other three 
must have originated in the speculations of compara- 
tively later times." 

In the Carlyle, "Hero Worship," p. 263 we have: 
"Who knows to what unnameable subtleties of spiritual 
law all these Pagan Fables owe their shape! The 
number Twelve divisiblest of all, which could be halved, 
quartered, parted into three, into six, the most remark- 
able number, — this was enough to determine the Signs 
of the Zodiac." Let it be remembered there were twelve 
tribes of the Children of Israel. 

Note "empyreal air" in our late quotation from 
Milton." This is a direct reference to the "Empyrean." 
See p. 57, 147, 157, 160, 214 and 215. 



182 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

As to "empyrean," we from Bacon quote thus: 

" Between the globe of the earth then and the summits 
of heaven there seem to be generally three regions 
especially remarkable; namely, the tract of the air, the 
tract of the planetary heaven, and the tract of the 
starry heaven. Now in the lowest of these tracts, the 
starry nature is not consistent; in the middle it is con- 
sistent, but gathers into separate globes; in the highest 
it diffuses itself among a great number of globes, till 
at the summits thereof it seems to pass as it were into 
the perfect empyrean." See " Phil. Works," Vol. 5, 
p. 521 to 524. 

"Pegasean wing," the symbol of poetic inspiration, 
used in our "Urania" quotation, refers, we say, to 
"The Horse I ride," in the "Sartor Resartus" to be 
touched later. See the wonders of this horse described 
in Murray, p. 52, 54, 84, 186 and 219. 

As to the words "yet not alone, while thou visit'st 
my slumbers nightly" see please. Sonnet 86 touching 
"that affable familiar ghost which nightly gulls him 
with intelligence." Then see "Milton", p. 10, 56, 146 
and 178. See then the Defoe work, "Duncan Camp- 
bell," and Addison, Vol. 2, p. 10 to 17, remembering 
we are here but outlining. It is said Bacon dictated his 
night thoughts every morning to his secretary. See 
please, as to sleep, dreams and visions, our "Defoe 
Period," p. 259 to 270. 

As to the mentioned fable of " Bacchus" or Dionysus, 
see its interpretation in Bacon's "Wisdom of the Ancients" 
as well as the fable of "Cupid, or an Atom". The 
most ancient Cupid has been touched in connection 
with Chaos. He bears direct relation to Bacon's doctrine 
of forms of the first class; and so concerns metaphysics. 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 183 

The later Cupid, the son of Venus, has relation to phy- 
sics; and so to his forms of the second class. They will 
be touched in due place. Bacon said be it remembered, 
"poetry is the stream of knowledge." Dionysus here, 
note, was not the Areopagite. 

As to the "Thracian bard" or Orpheus, see its 
interpretation in Bacon's ''Wisdom of the Ancients." 
Note the application or kind of use he made of it; and 
generally of these fables. "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 4, 
p. 117. 

What, in his interpretation of the fable "Pan," did 
Francis Bacon mean by the "Hebrew Mysteries?" 
See please, what he says in our "Defoe Period," p. 75 
as to the doctrine concerning "the sacred ceremonies." 
He says "it discloses and lays bare the very mysteries 
of the sciences." This he says in connection with cypher 
writings, and methods for handing writings on to poster- 
ity. The business of fables is to teach ideas, not facts. 
Bacon ever so used them. They concern allegory. They 
symbolize thought. Note later in his "Sartor Resartus" 
its Chapter on Symbols, to be called to relation with his 
"Symbol Cypher," so called. Touching this method of 
instruction by fables, this web of entertainment, we 
from his "Grubean Sage" Defoe, quote thus: 

"The humour of the day must prevail; and as there 
is no instructing you, without pleasing you, and no 
pleasing you but in your own way, we must go on in 
that way; the understanding must be refined by allegory 
and enigma; you must see the sun through the cloud, 
and relish light by the help of darkness; the taste must 
be refined by salts, the appetite whetted by bitters; in 
a word, the manners must be reformed in masquerade, 
devotion quickened by the stage, not the pulpit, and 



184 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

wit be brightened by satires upon sense." "Defoe 
Period," p. 68, Addison, same subject, p. 70. 

Careful thought will yet reach the conclusion, that 
the "Pilgrim's Progress," in Baconian light, concerns the 
government of the individual; the "Holy War" the 
government of a people — England; Milton the govern- 
ment of the world, or God's government of the twelve 
tribes. His volume on mind or metaphysics, is the 
Plays; so Milton is his great volume to posterity, on his 
distinctive views in astronomy, philosophy and theology. 

God's special government as king, to the time of 
Saul; of the twelve tribes of Israel, is symbolized, by 
the twelve stones in the breast-plate of Aaron, and a 
stone besides. So in like manner, was Bacon's "New 
Atlantis." See its twelve heads, and one concealed 
please, in our "Defoe Period," p. 381 to 384. 

As to these twelve stones, "and a stone besides," we 
from Milton, p. 69, quote thus: 

"The place he found beyond expression bright, 
Compared with aught on Earth, metal or stone — 
Not all parts like, but all alike informed 
With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire. 
If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear; 
If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite. 
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone 
In Aaron's breast-plate, and a stone besides, 
Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen — 
That stone, or like to that, which here below 
Philosophers in vain so long have sought; 
In vain, though by their powerful art they bind 
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound 
In various shapes old Proteus from the sea, 
Drained through a limbec to his native form." 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 185 

Note here, and on p. 151 "like with like," to be 
touched later. 

From Bacon's "Wisdom of the Ancients" let "Pro- 
teus" be called to relation. Among other things Bacon 
says: "He was the messenger and interpreter of all 
antiquity and all secrets." He says: "The sense of 
this fable relates, it would seem, to the secrets of nature 
and the conditions of matter. For under the person of 
Proteus, — Matter — the most ancient of all things, 
next to God — is meant to be represented." 

In "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Proteus is 
made one of its chief characters. As to God's special 
government itself, both civil, and ecclesiastic, of the 
twelve tribes, we from Milton, p. 260 quote thus: 

"This also shall they gain by their delay 
In the wide wilderness; there they shall found 
Their government, and their great Senate choose 
Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained. 
God, from the Mount of Sinai, whose grey top 
Shall tremble, he descending, will himself, 
In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpet's sound, 
Ordain them laws — part, such as appertain 
To civil justice; part, religious rites 
Of sacrifice, informing them, by types 
And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise 
The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve 
Mankind's deliverence. But the voice of God 
To mortal ear is dreadful: they beseech 
That Moses might report to them his will. 
And terror cease; he grants what they besought, 
Instructed that to God is no access 
Without Mediator, whose high office now 



186 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Moses in figure bears, to introduce 

One greater, of whose day he shall foretell, 

And all the Prophets, in their age, the times 

Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus laws and rites 

Established, such delight hath God in men 

Obedient to his will that he vouchsafes 

Among them to set up his tabernacle — 

The Holy One with mortal men to dwell, 

By his prescript a sanctuary is framed 

Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein 

An ark, and in the ark his testimony. 

The records of his covenant; over these 

A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings 

Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn 

Seven lamps, as in a zodiac representing 

The heavenly fires." 

Here again we touch the shadows, types, or teaching 
by the "sacred ceremonies," in other words the Hebrew 
mysteries. Bacon of his "initiative" method of trans- 
mitting of writings to posterity says: "I call that 
doctrine initiative (borrowing the term from the sacred 
ceremonies) which discloses and lays bare the very 
mysteries of the sciences." See our p. 175; then 
"Defoe Period," p. 75 and p. 70 to 11. 

God's special government, of the twelve tribes by 
law given direct through Moses and the High Priests 
continued until the destruction of the first Temple. 
The Gospel, or new mode of teaching, that is, the new 
dispensation by the Son, followed. See Milton, p. 62, 
262 to 270. Bacon's government model, found else- 
where in these writings will be touched later. In the 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 187 

prose writings of Milton the model was retailored and 
the doctrine of the divine right of kings sharply cut out. 

That the renewed earth may be our ultimate or 
restored Paradise, see Milton p. 266, 268, 63 and 65. 
The terrene, instead of the solar system, is maintained in 
Milton as in Bacon throughout. Hence the emphasis 
in Milton upon the earth's value in the system. In 
other words the earth, and not the sun, is its center, 
contrary to modern thought. 

As to the stupendous bridge over Chaos from Hell- 
gate to the earth, see please Milton, p. 212 to 232. As 
to freedom of the will, divine substance, the deadly sins, 
their arguments, and this bridge, see p. 29 to 59. The 
tagging, hooking, or buttoning together of Bacon's divine 
works to form a bridge, will be touched latter in Chapter 
5 in connection with his "Capital Letter Cypher." He 
not only says, "nature is God's art," but that "divinity 
is the art of arts." 

With this brief outlining, we would now; using our 
replete vowel indexes upon these writings, gladly enter 
upon an extended examination of the vocabulary, dis- 
tinctive expressions, and language features in Milton, 
in all their Baconian relations, as taken into said indexes 
did space permit. In a measure they may be found 
in the foot-notes to our "Defoe Period." Note on p. 
188, 222 and 455 Bacon's tentative methods with words. 
Let others spin upon the thread here drawn out. 

Throughout Bacon's attributed writings almost 
nothing appears in relation to himself. More will be 
found, in his non-attributed works. The sum almost 
of what he says of himself, in his attributed writings, 
will be found in the already mentioned paper touching 
the handing on of his writings to posterity quoted at 



188 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

page 111. It concerns his Life aims and believed in 
mission. Having earlier taken shape in his mind, let 
it be read here in connection with his words in Milton, 
p. 278, with which we close this chapter: 

"When I was yet a child, no childish play 
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set 
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do, 
What might be public good; myself I thought 
Born to that end, born to promote all truth, 
All righteous things. Therefore, above my years, 
The Law of God I read, and found it sweet; 
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew 
To such perfection that, ere yet my age 
Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast 
I went into the Temple, there to hear 
The teachers of our Law, and to propose 
What might improve my knowledge or their own, 
And was admired by all. Yet this not all 
To which my spirit aspired. Victorious deeds 
Flamed in my heart, heroic acts — one while 
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke; 
Then to subdue and quell, o'er all the earth, 
Brute violence and proud tyrannic power, 
Till truth were freed, and equity restored: 
Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first 
By winning words to conquer willing hearts, 
And make persuasion do the work of fear 
At least to try, and teach the erring soul, 
Not wilfully misdoing, but unware 
Misled; the stubborn only to subdue." 

In calling the foregoing to relation with the quota- 
tion referred to, note its words, "myself I thought born 



HIS POSTHUMOUS POCKET LABORS 189 

to that end, born to promote all truth." Note "truth" 
in Sonnet 101. 

At the opening of Milton, p. 10, and see p. 56, 146, 
178, we have 

"Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song, 
That with no middle flight intends to soar 
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that does prefer 
Before all temples the upright heart and pure. 
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first 
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread. 
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark 
Illumine, what is low raise and support; 
That, to the highth of this great argument, 
I may assert Eternal Providence, 
And justify the ways of God to men." 

If Francis Bacon be judged by that which he has 
done for the race, under his great covert mission, would 
he be entitled to be called St. Alban, reader? 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FIELD OF INVENTION. RELATION OF THE 
SCIENCES TO POETRY. CYPHERS OF BOTH LIT- 
ERARY PERIODS. THE UNDISCLOSED OVERALL 
CYPHER OF THE SECOND. THIS THE TRUE KEY. 
THE "SARTOR RESARTUS" BACON'S V^ORK OF 
DURANCE. CONTAINS IT THE "ALPHABET"? 

FRANCIS BACON began early, and was ever, an 
astute student of the ancients. In his survey 
of the state of learning he reports a history of 
literature wanting. To supply that history was part 
of his great covert mission. His expressed purpose "to 
hunt the utmost antiquity and mysteries of the poets," 
rests here. He says: "For poetry is, as it were, the 
stream of knowledge." It presents the field of Inven- 
tion, and is aided by all of the sciences. This is graph- 
ically portrayed in the Plays, and throughout the 
writings under review. In a non-attributed work he 
says: 

" Poetry I regard as a tender virgin, young and exceed- 
ingly beautiful, whom diverse other virgins, — ^namely, all 
the other sciences — are assiduous to enrich, to polish and 
adorn. She is to be served by them, and they are to be 
ennobled through her. But this same virgin is not to be 
rudely handled, nor dragged through the streets, nor 
exposed in the market place, nor posted on the corners 
of gates or palaces. She is of so exquisite a nature 
that he who knows how to treat her will convert her 
into gold of the most inestimable value. He who pos- 
sesses her should guard her with vigilance, neither 
suffering her to be polluted by obscene, nor degraded 
by dull and frivolous works." 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 191 

Bacon here, on the relation of the sciences to poetry, 
is elegantly and clearly portrayed. Let it be observed 
that poetry is included as one of the sciences. " Metaphy- 
sics, or final causes, are as a virgin consecrated to God," 
says Bacon. 

The "virgin" here represents "final causes." She 
represents the region of Invention, which is aided by 
"all of the other sciences," — and "they are to be en- 
nobled through her." They are her true handmaids. 

She presides over literature. She is "the stream of 
knowledge." She in his Shakespeare Sonnets, is his 
Muse. See Sonnet 100 and others. She is "that best 
I wish in thee," after his fall, see Sonnet 37. To the 
King he then said, "I am still a virgin, for matters that 
concern your person or crown." His Promus Note 380 
is in these words: " To me, virgin! no aspectof sufferings 
arises new or unexpected; I have anticipated all things 
and gone over them beforehand in my mind." 

His distinctive metaphysics is presented in the 
first named virgin. With his views, she is the head, the 
apex, the virgin key to the sciences. She was the 
"blessed key" of Sonnet 52. 

She is beautiful, in that it is the business of final 
causes to reveal phenomena. See our "Defoe Period," 
p. 194. "Including final causes with physics, has caused 
an arrest and prejudice to science," says Bacon. 

In metaphysics Francis Bacon differs from all other 
writers. He says: " Be not troubled about Metaphysics, 
when true Physics have been discovered, there will be 
no Metaphysics. Beyond the true Physics is divinity 
only." Again, "It is the perfect law of the inquiry of 
truth, that nothing be in the globe of matter, which has 



192 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

not its parallel in the globe of crystal or the under- 
standing." 

Mind with his views is the cause of all; whether ex- 
pressed by divine will in creation, or presented to 
human ideation, by objects. Ever, in a sense peculiarly 
his, he refers to mind or soul as a "substance," in the 
sense of cause, or law; as the substance of heat, is the 
law of heat; and akin to the thought, "For soul is form 
and doth the body make." 

Let "substance," and "the great eye of the world" 
be traced in our "Defoe Period," p. 534 to 542. See 
then on "substance," his Addison, Vol. 4, p. 104; and 
the article beginning on p. 112. Then p. 1 to 5 see the 
matchless paper on the resident gifts of the human soul. 
"Sleep is nothing else but the retirement of the living 
spirit into itself," says Bacon. The body is its "out- 
ward walls," Sonnet 146. Dream life discloses its 
possibilities. See please our "Defoe Period," p. 258 to 
271. Mind is a "castle," see Defoe "History of the 
Devil," Bohn's edition, p. 443, 568 and 576. When 
spread in the body it is in its outer walls, is in eye-gate, 
ear-gate, nose-gate, mouth-gate and feel-gate. 

"Substance" in Bacon's distinctive sense of use is 
found in both Plays and Sonnets, and throughout these 
writings, Milton included. See Sonnet 53. His mental 
philosophy may be found epitomized in Sonnet 146. 

Formal or final causes, only, with Bacon's views, 
concern mind or metaphysics; so material and efficient 
causes concern physics, clothing, or body. Note in this 
his Tabular system, and his subtle doctrine of Forms; as 
applied to metaphysics; in his own sense of use. 

Francis Bacon's Posthumous Pocket labors; his 
great literary scheme for posterity, began in early years; 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 193 

and, being assisted by methods not yet known to us, 
grew to great proportions. 

Into relation with this thought; we, from that 
Pocket, introduce here a Waif, that time will yet distin- 
guish. Like his Shakespeare Sonnets, it is in a sense 
autobiographic. It might properly yea should be printed 
under the same cover. 

Its "Paper — catacombs," will yet tell of Francis 
Bacon's infancy, his youth, his romance, his wander- 
ings in the wilderness of doubt and unbelief, his new 
flooring of knowledge; and, in its "New Mythus;" his 
ultimate religious convictions; which, to this hour, 
remain mooted questions. From it, we of the Poet and 
Instructor, quote thus: 

"What too, are all Poets, and moral Teachers, but 
a species of Metaphorical Tailors.? Touching which 
high Guild the greatest living Guild-brother has trium- 
phantly asked us: "Nay, if thou wilt have it, who but 
the Poet first made Gods for men; brought them down 
to us; and raised us up to them?" Note "Tailor," our 
p. 76. 

This great "Guild-brother" we say reader was 
Francis Bacon himself; and as surely as he was the man 
in hue; "all hues in his controlling," of the Shakespeare 
Sonnets 20 and 53, where "in Grecian tires" he tells 
us he is "painted new." 

In his "Wisdom of the Ancients," he restored Greek 
fables, to their Hebrew roots. Thus used; he, in them, 
was "painted new," as stated in the Sonnet. 

Were portions of these restored fables made to 
stand for his already named "simple natures;" or 
"surds?" He at one time thought to bring forth his 



194 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

new system under cover of them, as Mr. Spedding 
informs us. See our p. 49. 

In most of Bacon's non-attributed work, we find 
him adroitly, yet covertly, self-centered. In what 
Francis Bacon did for the race, he started at home, 
started in his own soul and studied its emotions, its 
motives, its passions, as well as its objective activities; 
and with it, and with all the impetus which he could 
gather to it, from both research and imagination did he 
paint forth every phase of our human life. With his 
views one age is but a type of all ages; and one soul but 
a type of the souls of all. For these reasons we find him 
largely, though covertly self-centered in his work. He 
was the radius from which to insinuate all knowledge. 
He was indeed the Great Monk, that retired not his 
thoughts nor his body, but who hooded his personality 
from portions of his works; leaving them thus to time. 

As stated he avoids self-laudation, as did Dante, 
Horace and Homer; by addressing himself in cover 
words — pronouns in the second and third person, in- 
stead of the first. This applies in general throughout 
his non-attributed work when he refers to himself; 
though not in every instance. We illustrate our point 
by a brief example from Swift: 

"Thou shalt in puny wood be shown, 
Thy image shall preserve thy fame; 
Ages to come thy worth shall own. 
Point to thy Umbs, and tell thy name." 

"Men are made of wood," says Bacon. And "I am 
no unlikely piece of wood to make your Lordship a 
good servant." His servant "Sages" were his "Classic 
Authors in Wood," reader; and he their lauded chief. 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 195 

"This, O Universe! is the adventurous attempt of me 
thy secretary." 

The author of our "Guild-brother" work, known as 
the "Sartor Resartus," himself pronounces it to be, 
the greatest piece of work he has, or ever hopes to per- 
form. See Bohn's edition, p. 335. In our quotation 
from it, note, please the use of entirely uncalled for capital 
letters. They are spread thus throughout the entire 
work. We would now place it. 

We believe it to be the most concentrated piece of 
linguistic Art known to our language. Touching lan- 
guage, and to further emphasize its strange use of 
capitals, we p. 90 quote thus: 

"Language is called the Garment of Thought, 
however, it should rather be. Language is the Flesh- 
Garment, the Body of Thought. I said that Imagination 
wove this Flesh-Garment; and does she not? Metaphors 
are her stuff; examine Language; what, if you except 
some few primitive elements (of natural sound), what 
is it all but Metaphors, recognized as such, or no longer 
recognized; still fluid and florid, or now solid-grown and 
colorless. If those same primitive elements are the 
osseous fixtures in the Flesh-Garment, Language, — then 
are Metaphors its muscles and tissues and living integu- 
ments." See here Bacon's very distinctive views on 
fantasy; or on the Imagination and Reason; and notably 
in connection with "similitudes, types, parables, visions, 
dreams." "Defoe Period," p. 193 to 195, 269 and 586. 

We say to you, reader, this work consists in tagging, 
hooking, or buttoning together, into one body of Art; 
the entire framework, or salient points in both of Francis 
Bacon's literary periods. The Second period followed 
his fall, in 1621; and was, in a measure, the retailoring 



196 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

and expanding of the First. Already we have touched 
it to relation in connection with his Shakespeare Sonnet 
68, in Chapter IV, p. 105. This Sonnet must ever 
indicate the line of demarkation between Francis 
Bacon's First, and Second, literary periods. 

We now call our "Guild-brother" work to direct relation 
with Francis Bacon's "Capital Letter Cypher," in other 
words, to his great "Alphabet of Nature." Thus far it has 
been thought that this "Alphabet" was never completed 
or in any way put to use. 

That the reader may here appreciate the value which 
Bacon himself set upon it, we give its closing words thus: 

"Such then is the rule and plan of the alphabet. May 
God the Maker, the Preserver, the Renewer of the Universe, 
of his love and compassion to man, protect and guide this 
work, both in its ascent to His glory, and in its descent 
to the good of man, through His only Son, God with us." 
"Bacon's Phil. Works," by Spedding, Vol. 5, p. 211 and 135. 

As a legitimate inference of Bacon's authorship we 
quote the title to a Defoe work now kept out of sight. 
"An Essay upon Literature; or, an Enquiry into the 
Antiquity and Original of Letters; Proving, That the two 
Tables written by the Finger of God in Mount Sinai, 
was the first Writing in the World; and that all other 
Alphabets derive from the Hebrew." See in this our 
"Defoe Period," p. 429 to 432. Fine business surely 
for the liveryman Defoe. Remember please, the un- 
called for use of capital letters in the mentioned papers 
attributed to him. Turn here, ye careful thinker, to his 
"History of the Devil," Bohn's edition, p. 294 to 300, 
and 332 to 342 if you would have light upon Defoe's; 
Milton's; that is, upon Bacon's authorship. He ever 
retailored and was his own critic. 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 197 

The spring-head now set against the development of 
this authorship Hes deep. But few are aware of its ex- 
tent or subtlety. Let it be looked to that later it con- 
trols not the publication of Books. Its eye rests here. 
It has existed from the hour of the overthrow, in 
England, of the Cromwell party, the Independents. 
We touched it earlier at p. 144. 

Why now Bacon's sacred emphasis, reader, upon his 
"Alphabet," if never completed or put to use.? We 
say the most exquisite example of its use will yet be 
found in the "Sartor Resartus;" and we would that the 
world take note of it; and see to it; that works thus 
capitalized be carefully preserved from oblivion to the 
day of its true opening. 

We understand Bacon himself to refer to it, the 
"Sartor Resartus;" in the Cypher story found in his 
"Novum Organum" by Mrs. Gallup, in her wonderful 
Work entitled "Francis Bacon's Bi-literal Cypher," p. 
123, where we have: 

"Therefore there is soone to bee a little work which 
shall set cleerlie forth these artes that have held many, 
many a secret from my times to carry it on (to) th' 
great future. If there bee none to decipher it at length, 
how many weary days will have beene lost; yet — such is 
the constancy of hope in our brests — we hold to th' 
work without rest, firmly trusti'g that coming times and 
th' future men of our owne, and other lands, shall at 
last rewarde these labours as they soe manifestly shall 
deserve." 

We say the Time Example in placing the "Alpha- 
bet," the Overall Cypher, will yet be found upon the 



198 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Title-page of The Great First Folio of his Shakespeare 
Plays, issued in 1623, where we have: 

"This Figure, that thou here seest put, 
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut; 
Wherein the Graver had a strife 
With Nature, to outdo the life. 
O, could he but have drawn his wit 
As well in brass, as he hath hit 
His face! the Print would then surpass 
All that was ever writ in brass. 
But, since he cannot. Reader, look 
Not on his Picture, but his Book," 

Let the uncalled for use of capital letters in the 
foregoing, as in our "Guild-brother "work under review, 
be carefully noted. We were the first to lay the claim, 
that all of the poems introductory to the Shakespeare 
plays, were products of Francis Bacon's own pen, 
though other names are appended to them. See our 
"Defoe Period," p. 114. 

Mrs. Gallup in her great Cypher Work not only finds, 
but sets out a short Cypher-story in every poem; and 
in every part of the introductory matter to the Plays; 
except in the mentioned title-page poem. See her work, 
p. 165 to 168. 

She finds no Cypher story in the Time or title-page 
poem, we say, simply because it concerns the author's 
Second literary period; and so, she herself has not yet 
found it; or if so, she has not as yet made it public. 

Thus far we say she has disclosed but the Cyphers 
and work of the First period; which, by design, and to 
save confusion, was intended to be first opened; before 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 199 

the Second period was to be entered upon; as we pur- 
pose now to make clearly manifest from Mrs. Gallup's 
own work. Careful examination of it, makes clear our 
already laid claim touching the Defoe period. 

Bacon's endeavor to compass the Cypher work of 
both Periods; and yet hold the "Alphabet" in abeyance; 
or, for a time, undiscovered, by his decipherer; rendered 
the work difficult. 

Now to our purpose. In the poem following the 
Title-page of the Plays, to wit; — in the Ben Jonson poem, 
Mrs. Gallup, p. 165, finds enwrapped the following: 

"Any person using here the bi-literall Cipher, will 
find a rule to be followed when writing the hidden 
letters in which are Histories, Comedies, Tragedies; a 
Pastorall of the Christ; Homer's epics and that of Virgil, 
which are fully render'd in English poetry; the com- 
pletion of my New Atlantis; Greene's Life; Story of 
Marlowe; the two secret epistles (expressly teaching a 
Cipher now for the first time submitted, doubtfully, for 
examination and studie, by any who may be sufficiently 
curious, patient, or industrious); part of Thyrsis (Vir- 
gile's Aeclogues); Bacchantes, a Fantasie; Queene 
Elizabeth's Life (as never before truely publisht); a 
Life of the Earl of Essex, and my owne. 

Fr. Lord Verulam.'* 

We now claim to the reader, that "the two secret 
epistles," and the words enclosed in parentheses, in the 
foregoing, refer to the, as yet, undisclosed "Alphabet of 
Nature," or Key to Bacon's new invention. Special use 
of parentheses was made in the cypher work. See our 
quotation, and see p. 143. Note "the two secret epistles" 
here; and p. 155, 136, 143, 146, 167 and 346. 



200 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

To show the "Alphabet" to be as the goal of the 
work, we, from the Cypher found in the "Headings of 
the Comedies," p. 166, quote thus: 

"Reade easy lessons first, and forsooth the Absey in 
the Life and Death of King John, act one, is a good one; 
it shewes the entrance to a labyrinth. Court Time, a 
sure leader, and proceed to his Alphabet of Nature.** 

Later we will return to the mentioned parenthesis, 
and to the Cypher in it; "now for the first time sub- 
mitted," and show it to be the one which the author 
was unwilling his decipherer should at the outset dis- 
cover. 

Bacon's critics must erelong unhitch from their 
train of conclusions which say, he began a system he 
was unable to complete. The mentioned Key or "For- 
mula" they never saw. In youth he outlined it as "The 
Noblest Birth of Time." This from the outset was the 
true wonder of the system; and it was never revealed by 
Bacon while living, is our claim. We are here and now 
in search of it, reader. 

As to his felt mission, and mental gifts, we from 
Mrs. Gallup's Cypher Work, p. 344 quote him thus: 
"We that know the manifold mightie influences of un- 
seen things, owe more of this knowledge of our en- 
vironings to the light from our Celestiall Source then 
to our investigations. Therein lieth the duty we owe 
to our fellowe-men. " See our p. 62 and 63. 

As to the diff^erent Cyphers made use of by Bacon, 
see Mrs. Gallup, p. 167. And on page 118, he says: 
"These are the Bi-literall; Wordd; Capital Letter; Time, 
or as more oft call'd Clocke; SymboU; and Anagram- 
maticke." 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 201 

To show now that Francis Bacon did not intend to 
have his decipherer at once find the Key to his new in- 
vention, we in the Cypher Work found by Mrs. Gallup 
in his "New Organ," p. 127, quote thus: 

"Therefore, whilst I am still in very good hope that 
my last contrivance is not solv'd, noe feeling ofaniesort, 
save kindlinesse, is in my soule towards my decypherer. 

If he discov'r the key of my newe invention, him- 
selfe, before it bee explain'd, it shall redound to his 
credit." 

"My last contrivance" was, we say, to teach "the 
key of my new invention." This "contrivance" reader, 
was the Cypher "now for the first time submitted." 
See please the parenthesis, found in our Cypher quota- 
tion from the Ben Jonson poem, p. 199. See "con- 
trivance," our p. 87. 

We say it was "Time's best jewel" of Sonnet 65; 
and, as yet, was not in "Time's chest" therein mentioned. 
Note, please, this "chest" in Sonnet 48, where he refers 
to his jewels — -his literary works. 

It was the "blessed key" that could bring the 
author to his "sweet uplocked treasure" of Sonnet 52. 

We say, this Key was revealed to Bacon through or 
by means of his "Tables of Discovery" referred to in 
Sonnet 122, and the absolutely new system of Sonnet 59. 

These tables were the very ground, and root so to 
speak, upon which Francis Bacon reared his great 
philosophic structure for posterity. It was these that 
first revealed the forms of "the simple natures" as an 
Alphabet to it; and hence their laudation in the Sonnet. 

The Shakesperean having for nearly three centuries 
failed to open these Sonnets, he should not longer pout. 



202 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

That he may not longer blow out the light, we say: 
"No leave take I for I will ride as far as land will let me 
by your side." We have in our "Defoe Period" but 
traced a thread line. This erelong will become a high- 
way to Sir Francis Bacon's English Augustan Age. "A 
history of literature is wanting," says Bacon. 

The "pen-names" of his First literary period, became 
the "Grubean Sages" of the Second. As to pen-names, 
see the Cypher Work, p. 54 and 148. We on p. 54 have: 
"When I have assum'd men's names, th' next step is to 
create for each a stile naturall to th' man that yet 
should [let] my owne bee seene, as a thrid o' warpe in my 
entire fabricke soe that it may be all mine." 

How Robert Harley came by the manuscripts of 
the Second period must yet be told. Did he play them 
for the author's or for his own ends? Our subject being 
new, we have indulged in some repetition. 

The mentioned Sages stood about him, as in a 
theatre; or as the poets of the Roman Period did about 
Caesar. They spread Baconian light. They were 
Bacon's "multiplying glass." They were facets upon 
one and the same stone. They will yet be found to be 
radiations of intelligence from the one source; the one 
center; the one vocabulary; and that Bacon's. In 
Sonnet 76 we have: "Every word doth almost tell my 
name," so distinctive is his vocabulary. See our 
"Defoe Period" foot-notes, as to vocabulary and langu- 
age features. 

All of the "Newly Discovered Defoe Papers" present 
throughout the same identical use of capital letters as 
found in our "Guild-brother" work. They are what in 
journalism became known as leading articles. They 
were started after the close of the "Review" in 1713, 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 203 

It having begun in 1704. They all concern Cypher 
writing. Please see, in this, our "Defoe Period," p. 
447 to 520. To this time, the first English daily; the 
first English magazine; and the first English novel; 
had not, as yet, appeared; and both literature and 
morals were at a low ebb, as Knight in his History of 
England informs us. See here the Britannica article on 
"Newspapers" to this period. 

When literary works highly wrought are poured 
rapidly into a depleted period; it, of necessity, brings 
confusion of tongues. The design was, the destruction 
of the old, by growing beneath it a better new, in both 
church, and state. Bacon himself said he would set the 
ants anew at work; and a new awakening will yet come 
out of this literature, reader. Such a vast system of 
reform was never before attempted by any one man. 
And Bacon well knew it. Read Sonnet 55, with pro- 
nouns in the first person. 

We now present an example of Bacon's pen-names in 
the person of Thomas Hobbes. He was a friend to both 
Bacon, and Ben Jonson, and became one of Bacon's 
"pen-names." His "Leviathan" was Bacon's govern- 
ment model of the First period. It has the same use of 
capital letters throughout. See the beautiful Cambridge 
University Press edition of the work. 

Bacon's greatest concentration touching govern- 
ment, of both church and state, is here set out. Its 
first paragraph opens, in a description, of the model. 
This model is God's noblest form, nature's apex — the 
human body. "The King the head, we the body," says 
Bacon. The "Grubean Sages" all; were masters in 
portraying it. See our "Defoe Period," please, p. 573 
and 595. 



204 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Touching this model we from the Cypher found in 
Bacon's Natural History by Mrs. Gallup, p. 359, quote 
thus: 

"The times were not a bad schoolemaster. When I 
resumed my former study of th' state of th' nations, 
and patiently work'd out th' modell of government, my 
most potent reason may be justlie gather'd. In my 
Cipher as you must soon see, I have written out the 
aforesaid modell, which I still thinke is worthy of 
attention." 

And on page 344 we have: "Surely my hand and 
braine have but short rest. I firmly beleeve it were not 
in the power of humane beings to do anie more than I 
have done, yet I am but partlie satisfied." Let the 
government model so elegantly portrayed in Coriolanus 
Act 1, sc. 1, especially the portion of it embracing the 
Belly and the Limbs, here entertain the reader. 

In the "Leviathan" osseous or structural features of 
Bacon's work are with great concentration portrayed. 
Its identity in thought is spread into every phase of his 
First literary period. Its views on demonology, appari- 
tions, dreams and visions, set out in its later Chapters, 
and spread into all the writings under review; are basic 
in character. They are here weeded to the scripture 
basis. In Chapter 47 we have covert knowledge ex- 
pressed touching the Pope or King Oberon and his 
fairies. This knowledge is spread in many of the Plays. 
Note in this Chapter the already mentioned views con- 
concerning the Presbyterians and Independents. See 
our p. 133. As to Presbyterians Bacon says: 

"Besides, they opened the people a way to govern- 
ment by their consistory and presbytery; a thing though 
in consequence no less prejudicial to the liberties of 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 205 

private men than to the sovereignty of princes, yet in 
the first show very popular." " Bacon's Letters," vol. 
1, p. 100, see p. 96. See in this our "Defoe Period," p. 
198 and 199, 215 and 228. 

Note in the "Leviathan," Bacon's views, that to the 
time of Saul, God, in person, governed the world, as 
King since which time Kings became his deputies on 
earth. Everywhere in the Plays, the King is "God's 
deputy," "God's lieutenant;" "God's anointed;" "God's 
minister." And so in Richard 2nd, Act. 1, Sc. 2 we have: 

"Lan. God's is the quarrel; for God's substitute, 
His deputy anointed in His sight. 
Hath caus'd his death; the which, if wrongfully, 
Let Heaven revenge; for I may never lift, 
An angry arm against His minister." 

Soon after his fall as already indicated in the Sonnets, 
Bacon began vigorously to retailor this doctrine set out 
so fully in his "Leviathan." Later, he most effectually 
performed it in his Defoe's "Jure Divino" and other 
works. See our "Defoe Period," p. 545 and 568. On 
p. 515 and 516 he most graphically portrays his own 
folly in abandoning his defence. Join this please, reader, 
with "Thou blind fool. Love," of Sonnet 137 in our 
Chapter 4, p. 102. 

We return here to the use of capital letters. Let the 
Addison article on the subject, Bohn's edition. Vol. 3, 
p. 102 to 105 be read in full. It closes in these words: 

"This instance will, I hope, convince my readers, 
that there may be a great deal of fine writing in the 
capital letters which bring up the rear of my paper, and 
give them some satisfaction in that particular. But as 
for the full explication of these matters, I must refer 



206 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

them to time, which discovers all things." See now 
"parenthesis" Addison vol. 4, p. 107 to 110. On p. 
108 we have: "I have read over the whole sentence, 
(says I) but I look upon the parenthesis in the belly of 
it to be the most dangerous part, and as full of insinua- 
tions as it can hold." 

From that robe of durance the "Sartor Resartus" 
we page 121 quote thus: as to capital letters: "These 
things were the Alphabet, whereby in aftertime he was 
to syllable and partly read the grand Volume of the 
World: what matters it whether such Alphabet be in 
large gilt letters or in small ungilt ones, so you have an 
eye to read it?" And on p. 116, "I was looking at the 
fair illuminated Letters and had an eye for their gild- 
ing." See then p. 46, 90, 135, 227 to 299. 

Think you reader, the only motive for the use of the 
uncalled for capital letters spread forth in the mentioned 
works, was but to disfigure the printed page? On the 
contrary, we now make manifest to the reader Bacon's 
distinctive use of them. In the Cypher found in his "New 
Organ" page 119, by Mrs. Gallup, he says: 

" Keyes are used to pointe out the portions to be used 
in this worke. These keies are words imploied in a 
naturall and common waye, but are mark'd by capi- 
talls, the parenthese, or by frequent and unnecessarie 
iteration; yet all these are given in the other Cypheres 
also making the decipher's part lesse difficile." A 
little further on: "These must bee noted specially 
since they form our series of combining or joyning 
wordes, which like the marks th' builder putteth on 
the prepar'd blockes of stone shewing the place of 
each in the finisht building, pointe out with unmistakable 
distinctness its relation to all other parts." We would 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 207 

quote further did space permit. Let now the points 
touching capital letters, and parentheses, be taken 
with us as we go. They are again referred to at p. 143. 

In the same cypher p. 122, we have: 

"It is not easie to reveal secrets at th' same time 
that a wall to guard them is built, but this hath beene 
attempted, how successfull it shal be, I know not, for 
tho'wel contrived, so no one has found it, the cleere 
assurance cometh onely in th' dreemes and visions of 
of th' night, of a time when the secret shall bee fully 
reveal'd. That it shall not be now, and that it shall be 
then — that it shall be kept from all eyes in my owne 
time to bee seene at some future daye, however distante — 
is my care, my studie." 

We may thus see as already claimed, that Francis 
Bacon did not intend, while living, to have his Key, his 
"Formula of Interpretation" made public. 

In the Cypher found in his "Natural History," p. 353, 
we understand him to make reference to this "Formula" 
in the words: "But no part is better worth noting than 
the portio' that doth containe the story which Time 
onely will reveale, inasmuch as it is nowhere found or 
is nowhere left to my countrymen but in Cypher." 

Does our work of durance, the "Sartor Resartus," 
our "Guild-brother" work, contain that Cypher? We 
believe it, reader, and that Mrs. Gallup will erelong 
find it. We would assist. It is for the interest of literature 
that her Work be placed in our many good libraries. 

Bacon's Posthumous labors, the Cypher story tells 
us, began at an early age. 

Occurs it never to the readers of English literature 
that the Defoe period involves a mystery? While 
publishing the brief paper found in our "Defoe Period" 



208 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

p. 30, the good Editor remarked, "I know not what 
you may have found, but to me, the Defoe period 
was ever a mystery." See our p. 125 and 144. 

It was a literary stream, proceeding from anonymous 
writers having but the one Spring-head. The knowl- 
edge of each, to the fringes thereof, was known to, and 
interlocked with that of the others. This stream be- 
came the Hterary "English ink-sea" of the" Sartor 
Resartus," p. 282 and 275 to 282. The "sculptured 
stone head" of the "Fountain" from which it flowed, p. 
23, is made manifest in Vol. 4, p. 172 to 175, and 218 
to 221 of Addison. At times Addison is Swift; then 
Swift, Addison. 

Returning to our government model in both church 
and state we from the "Sartor Resartus," page 45, 
quote thus: 

"For neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man 
proceed by mere Accident, but the hand is ever guided on 
by mysterious operations of the mind. In all his Modes 
and habilatory endeavours an Architectural Idea will be 
found lurking; his Body and the Cloth are the site and 
materials whereon and whereby his beautiful edifice, of 
a Person, is to be built." And on p. 250, " For if Govern- 
ment is, so to speak, the outward skin of the Body 
Politic, holding the whole together and protecting it; 
and all your Craft-Guilds, and Associations for Industry, 
of hand or of head, are the Fleshly Clothes, the muscular 
and osseous Tissues (lying under such skin), whereby 
Society stands and works; then is Religion the inmost 
Pericardial and Nervous Tissue, which ministers Life 
and warm Circulation to the whole. Without which 
Pericardial Tissue the Bones and Muscles (of Industry) 
were inert, or animated only by a Galvanic vitality; the 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 209 

SKIN would become a shrivelled pelt, or fast-rotting 
raw-hide; and Society itself a dead carcass, — deserving to 
be buried." See here please, p. 312. 

In the foregoing, Bacon again touches his "Leviathan" 
model. Note "muscular and osseous Tissues" of society, 
there used. Then note them as applied to language in 
our earlier quotation from the work, or from the work it- 
self, touching "Language" p. 90. This strange use of 
uncalled for capital letters, so far as we are aware, has 
awakened no comment. 

Society, in the work, is presented as founded upon 
cloth, p. 4, 45, 67, 91, 188, 201, 294 and 313. In the 
"Pilgrim's Progress" touching cloth we quote thus: 
"Then they took them, and had them to Mount Charity, 
where they showed them a man that had a bundle of 
cloth lying before him, out of which he cut coats and 
garments for the poor that stood about him; yet his 
bundle, or roll of cloth, was never the less." The Tailor 
in the "Tale of a Tale," p. 55 and 69, is presented as 
an idol, postured as a Persian emperor. Note his Art. 
Bacon's philosophy of government, as it touches Persia 
and the Persian Magic, should be here read. "Bacon's 
Letters," Vol. 3, p. 90 to 99. Mr. Spedding p. 89 says: 
"Whence Bacon derived his idea of the nature of the Per- 
sian Magic, is a question with which we need not trouble 
ourselves here." Bacon p. 90, says: "For there is a 
great affinity and consent between the rules of nature, 
and the true ruler of policy: the one being nothing else 
but an order in the government of the world, and 
the other an order in the government of an estate. And, 
therefore the education and erudition of the kings of 
Persia was in a science which was termed by a name 
then of great reverence, but now degenerate and taken 



210 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

in ill part: for the Persian magic, which was the secret 
literature of their kings, was an observation of the 
contemplations of nature and an application thereof to 
a sense politic; taking the fundamental laws of nature, 
with the branches and passages of them, as an original 
and first model, whence to take and describe a copy and 
imitation for government." And p. 92: "This knowl- 
edge then, of making the government of the world a 
mirror for the government of a state, being a wisdom 
almost lost (whereof the reason I take to be because of 
the difficulty for one man to embrace both philosophies) 
I have thought good to make some proof (as far as my 
weakness and the straits of time will suiFer) to revive in 
the handling of one particular, wherewith now I most 
humbly present your Majesty." We here have both 
his obverse and reverse, or light and dark side in hand- 
ling this subject. In his Letters, Vol. 1, p. 125, he says: 
"Therefore, no doubt the sovereignty of man lieth hid 
in knowledge; wherein many things are reserved which 
kings with their treasure cannot buy, nor with their 
force command; their spials and intelligencers can give 
no news of them, their seamen and discoverers cannot 
sail where they grow." 

Persian Magic! Basic in its weedings of govern- 
ment both in church and state is his Defoe "History 
of Magic." The Magi it was, that had to do with 
ancient fables, and with God's special government of 
the 12 tribes. In his Hobbes' "Leviathan," in his 
Milton, his kinds of knowledge reveal themselves. In 
the work on Magic may be traced the sources from which 
Bacon collated his distinctive views on government, 
on astronomy, on substance, on spirits; and notably on 
those never embodied and never to be embodied; to wit, 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 211 

the guardian spirits, which occupy, not the planets but 
with Bacon's views "the middle regions" of the air; 
the contending grounds; touched earlier in Milton, p. 171 
to 174. These spirits he touches to relation in the 
Defoe work on "Apparitions." See Talboys' edition. 
We are here tracing for you English literature, Reader. 
As to Milton, " I fly out of my feathers." In his " History 
of the Devil," "I took it up by another handle." 

Note now in the "Sartor Resartus," p. 55, "the 
Persian Blacksmith" and Queen Elizabeth; and 109 
the little piece of "Persian silk" that covered the 
baby face of Teufelsdrockh in the Basket, when first 
viewed by his foster parents — Sir Nicholas and Anne 
Bacon, we say — and the basket bearer his father 
Leicester. Note the "Fox" and the "Leicester shoe- 
shop," p. 244, "and the farewell service of his 
awl!" p. 245. See "Fox" in the Cypher work, p. 346, 
where we have: "And I shall rest ill in my minde for 
this manie a long day, least this fox may chance to 
be unkennelled too early." See p. 169, 348 and 350. 

Turning now to the "Sartor Resartus" p. 82 we have: 

"The beginning of all Wisdom is to look fixedly on 

Clothes, or even with armed eyesight, till they become 

transparent." It is the business of mind, ever to deal 

with objects, and so be clothed. 

Touching now the tagging, hooking or buttoning 
together of the author's literary works, in the "Sartor 
Resartus;" as well as touching Pegasus; and his own 
body, see p. 278; and on p. 71, we have: 

"It was in some such mood, when wearied and fore- 
done with these high speculations, that I first came 
upon the question of Clothes. Strange enough, it 
strikes me, is this same fact of there being Tailors and 



212 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

Tailored, The Horse I ride has his own whole fell: 
strip him of the girths and flaps and extraneous tags I 
have fastened round him, and the noble creature is his 
own sempster and weaver and spinner, nay, his own 
bootmaker, jeweller, and man-milliner, he bounds free 
through the valleys, with a perennial rainproof court- 
suit on his body; wherein warmth and easiness of fit 
have reached perfection; nay, the graces also have been 
considered, and frills and fringes, with gay variety of 
colour, featly appended, and ever in the right place, 
are not wanting. While I — good Heaven ! — have thatched 
myself over with the dead fleeces of sheep, the bark of 
vegetables, the entrails of worms, the hides of oxen or 
seals, the felt of furred beasts; and walk abroad a moving 
Rag-screen, overheaped with shreds and tatters raked 
from the Charnel-house of Nature, where they would 
have rotted, to rot on me more slowly! Day after day, 
I must thatch myself anew; day after day, this despicable 
thatch must lose some film of its thickness; some film 
of it, frayed away by tear and wear, must be brushed 
off into the Ashpit, into the Laystall; till by degrees the 
whole has been brushed thither, and I, the dust-making, 
patent Rag-grinder, get new material to grind down. 
O subter-brutish! vile! most vile! For have not I too a 
compact all-enclosing Skin, whiter or dingier? Am I a 
botched mass of tailors' and cobblers' shreds, then; or a 
tightly-articulated, homogeneous little Figure, automatic, 
nay, alive?" Pegasus or "the Horse I ride" is the 
symbol of poetic inspiration. See our presentation at p. 
182. The Chapter on "The Dandical Body" we think in 
a measure tampered with. Like the Sonnets, the 
Chapters of the work may have been written at diflPerent 
periods. As to method, the author p. 42 says, "each 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 213 

part overlaps, and indents, and indeed runs quite 
through the other." 

Having touched "the Horse I ride" as it concerns 
poetry, we touch him now, see p. 260, as mounted by 
Elizabeth's rightful successor. We from the Cypher 
Work p. 142 quote thus: "For such a triviall, unworthie, 
unrighteous cause was my birthrighte lost, and nought 
save the strong will of Elizabeth turned men from 
conspiracie t' place me on th' throne. To winne backe 
their loyalty she assum'd most kingly aires, and, upon 
occasion harrangued the army, riding upon a richly 
caparison'd horse before the lines, and naming herself th' 
King. I for dear life dare not to urge my claim, but 
hope that Time shall ope th' waye unto my rightfuU 
honors." 

As to this tagging and buttoning together of the 
writer's works into one body of Art see p. 36, 66, 67, 271 
and others. The work covers selected material from the 
entire EngHsh Augustan Age, reader. See p. 42, 43 and 
45 to 59. 

From p. 89 we have: "All visible things are Em- 
blems; what thou seest is not there on its own account; 
strictly taken, is not there at all: Matter exists only 
spiritually, and to represent some Idea, and body it forth. 
Hence Clothes, as despicable as we think them, are so 
unspeakably significant." Again "Men are properly 
said to be clothed with Authority, clothed with Beauty, 
with Curses, and the like. Nay, if you consider it, what 
is Man himself, and his whole terrestrial Life, but an 
Emblem; a Clothing or visible Garment for that divine 
ME of his, cast hither, like a light-particle, down from 
Heaven? Thus is he said also to be clothed with a 
Body." 



214 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

And on p. 90, "Whatsoever sensibly exist, whatso- 
ever represents Spirit to Spirit is properly a Clothing, 
a suit of Raiment, put on for a season, and to be laid off. 
Thus in this one pregnant subject of clothes, rightly 
understood, is included all that men have thought, 
dreamed, done, and been: the whole External Universe 
and what it holds is but Clothing; and the essence of 
all Science lies in the philosophy of clothes." 

And p. 70: "So that this so solid-seeming World, after 
all, were but an air-image, our Me the only reality; and 
Nature, with its thousandfold production and des- 
truction, but the reflex of our own inward Force, the 
phantasy of our Dream." 

And, on p. 82, the author says: "For Matter, were 
it never so despicable, is Spirit, the manifestation of 
Spirit: were it never so honourable, can it be more.? 
The thing Visible, nay the thing Imagined, the thing 
in any way conceived as Visible, what is it but a Garment, 
a Clothing of the higher, celestial Invisible, unimaginable, 
formless, dark with excess of bright?" And see p. 241. 
In Milton we have the same subtle views as to Matter 
and Spirit, and "Mind is its own place," p. 15. See our 
presentation p. 157. We touch here the "New Mythus." 

Reform is the basic purpose of this work both in 
Church and State. It is an attempt to thwart old or 
existing forms of society by growing beneath them 
better new. See in this p. 251 and its Chapter "The 
Phoenix;" then its Chapter on "Symbols." As to the 
Church itself; see please p. 251, 273, 292, 308, 312, 317. 
Its new form, to be drawn forth from out these writings, 
was to be the "New Mythus," reader. This reform 
was to be by pen-gun, not by bayonet. See p. 130 and 
292. Bacon's ideational scope was never equalled in 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 215 

any age or country. More than probable, is it, that Mrs. 
Eddy drew from this work chiefly; though not quite 
catching the author's views as to matter and force. He 
says, it will be remembered, "For forms are but figments 
of the human mind unless you will call the laws of action 
by that name." Note "Thought-forms, Space and 
Time," on p. 302. 

The so called "Clothes- Volume," of the work, con- 
cerns the author's great literary carcass itself. So its 
"Paper Bags," in covert terms, yield a tentative 
autobiography of its author; of his infancy, his youth, 
his romance, his wanderings in the wilderness of doubt 
and unbelief, and of his ultimate new flooring of knowl- 
edge for posterity. As to the author's birth, infancy, 
and foster parents, see p. 137 to 143, 

As now to the "Clothes- Volume" itself see p. 95; then 
p. 9, 33, 42, 45, 72, 81, 121, 214, 235, 241, 243, 251, 252, 
298, 299 and 314. 

As to the "Paper Bags" see first p. 94 and 95; then 
9, 81, 129, 134, 135, 150, 159, 165, 175, 179, 217 and 231. 

The author's emphasis upon duty and obedience is 
spread into every phase of these writings; see, please, 
how they took their root in him, p. 122 and 123. 

As to his romance and one only love, see its Chapter 
on "Romance." Then into relation with it call Bacon's 
Cypher Story by Mrs. Gallup, p. 12, 79, 118, 173, 175, 
345 and 361. 

From the foregoing the reader may have a quick 
gathering of important points upon this rich piece of 
subtlety; the "Sartor Resartus;" and this whether or 
not he accepts our views concerning it. How this waif 
drifted from Bacon's Posthumous Pocket labors to the 



216 FRANCIS bacon's OWN STORY 

hands of Thomas Carlyle, may perhaps be found in 
"Bacon's Letters," Vol. 1, p. 1 to 16; Vol. 2, p. 2 to 5; 
and "Phil. Works," Vol. 3, p. 3 to 10. 

In the "Sartor Resartus " as in the " Cromwell Letters 
and Speeches" Editor and author are but one and the 
same person. The business of an Editor is here, as there, 
but part of the method of production, and introduction, 
of the book. There is here but the one writer. Touching 
this, we from the work itself, p. 13 have: "Who or what 
such Editor may be, must remain conjectural, and even 
insignificant; it is a voice publishing tidings of the 
Philosophy of Clothes; undoubtedly a Spirit addressing 
Spirits; whoso hath ears let him hear." 

Prof. Hudson opens his introduction to Everyman's 
Library edition of the work, thus: "One of the most 
vital and pregnant books in our modern literature, 
"Sartor Resartus" is also, in structure and form, one of 
the most daringly original. It defies exact classification. 
It is not a philosophic treatise. It is not an autobiog- 
raphy. It is not a romance. Yet in a sense it is all these 
combined." A little further on he fully agrees with us 
in the point that it has but the one writer and that the 
rest, as to an Editor, is but method. As it is so here, 
so is it in the "Cromwell Letters and Speeches." 

Francis Bacon was nowhere more adroit, or subtle, 
than in introductions to his non-attributed writings. 
See in this, his introduction to his Plays, and to his 
"Tale of a Tub." 

This method in the "Sartor Resartus," permits 
Bacon, the real author, to select and present desired 
features, not only from his life work, the "Clothes- 
Volume;" but from "the river of his History," the 
"Paper Bags." Both "Volume," and "Bags," are 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 217 

said to be the work of Prof. Diogenes Teufelsdrockh; 
and to come from "deep-thinking Germany" to the 
hands of a nameless British Editor to be aired to the 
EngHsh people; see p. 5 to 9. As to Diogenes and his 
Tub, see, please, p. 245; and earlier the author's "Tale 
of a Tub." As to Diogenes and the "philosopher's 
weed," see our "Defoe Period," p. 101 to 104 and 224. 

Were the letters in the never before used surname 
Teufelsdrockh to aid in opening the Overall cypher? 
At p. 109 of the "Sartor Resartus" it is queried as to 
whether the veil or piece of Persian Silk covering the 
baby face in the Basket, nothing can be inferred as to 
the true name. The Overall, or Capital Letter cypher in 
the Cypher Work, p. 143 is referred to thus: "But 
it is by othe' devices, as in cloth o' Persian silk, a patterne 
soon openeth out of the confusio'. Any aventurous 
worker can easilie trace it if he doth get th' true art." 

This Cypher is found presented in Bacon's "History 
of Henry the Seventh," written subsequent to his fall, 
where he claims to be the son of Queen Elizabeth, the 
Bacons being his foster parents. As the Queen refused 
to proclaim her covert marriage with her favorite, 
Leicester, this left Bacon with but an assumed name. 
Let this story as to the author's genesis as told in the 
Cypher Work, p. 137 to 144, be called to direct relation 
with it as told in the "Sartor Resartus," p. 103 to 113. i 
Prof. T. calls himself a "Pilgrim," a "Wanderer," the 
"Son of Time," and in covert terms from the "Paper 
Bags" gives us an anatomy of his life pilgrimage and 
doings. See our p. 121; then 24. 

Bacon's web of entertainment again presents it- 
self. Here it is an acute stimulus to mental endeavor; 
and the work will not readily be forgotten. We trust 



218 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

the reader has not forgotten our claim touching his 
trip to Highgate and the Hague. When returned he to 
England? On p. 341; will "his archives one day be 
opened by Authority?" Note "Monmouth Street at 
the bottom of our own English ink-sea," p. 282. 

Touching the author's pilgrimage and his "Pilgrim- 
stafF;" see, please, p. 93, 178, 185, 217, 218 and 244. 
And on p. 251 note the Interpreter. Then note him in 
the "Pilgrim's Progress" and in the last paragraph of 
Bacon's "New Organ." 

We return now, Reader, to "Hot, Cold, Moist and 
Dry," touched earlier from Milton, p. 171 to 174. Into 
relation with these four elements, we from the "Sartor 
Resartus," p. 96, quote thus: 

"Over such a universal medley of high and low, of 
hot, cold, moist and dry, is he here struggling (by union 
of like with like, which is Method) to build a firm 
Bridge for British travellers. Never perhaps since our first 
Bridge-builders, Sin and Death built that stupendous 
Arch from Hell-gate to the Earth, did any Pontifex, or 
Pontiff, undertake such a task as the present Editor. 
For in this Arch too, leading, as we humbly presume, 
far otherwards than that grand primeval one, the 
materials are to be fished up from the weltering deep, 
and down from the simmering air, here one mass, there 
another, and cunningly cemented, while the elements 
boil beneath." Note this Bridge; and the value of a 
true Book p. 202. As to "chaining together," the 
books, that belong together to form the Bridge; see p. 
242, 235, 236, and 30;?. As to this "Hell-gate" Bridge; 
see our page 187, and Milton p. 53. "It is fit to see how 
we can make a bridge from the present practice to the 
reformation" — says Bacon. In the light of the fore- 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 219 

going we now present the reader direct proof of Bacon's 
authorship; as well of Milton and the "Sartor Resartus;" 
as of his Cypher Work. They each interlock and prove 
the other. This will form a step on which our critic 
must fall down; or else oer-leap; for in his way it lies. 
Now to our purpose. 

Note the above mentioned parenthesis; "(by union 
of like with like, which is Method);" and on p. 242 is 
said to be the author's only method. We now call to 
direct relation this parenthesis with Bacon's Cypher 
Work p. 345, where we have: 

"My word-signs are scatt'red with most prodigall 
hand, not onely in the prose, but also in the diverse 
other workes. In many places you may finde them 
named as joyning-wordes, this manner shewing their 
use, which is to bring parts together. You must like- 
wise keep in minde one very important rule: it is, that 
like must be joyn'd to like. Match each key with 
words of a like meaning, like nature, or like origin." 
And on p. 174 we have: "Studie Time's rule: kin is 
set by kin, like is joyn'd to like." And on p. 169: 
"Seeke the keyes untill all bee found. Turne Time 
into an ever present, faithfuU companion, friend, guide, 
light, and way." Again on p. 94 we have: "The join- 
ing-words you see repeated so frequently, marke the 
portions which are to bee joyned together in th' perfect 
whole, even as in the modell. 

It doth not rest with the stone-mason to shape or 
invent his planne, — this is prepar'd to his use, — so in this 
my temple, the model hath not fayl'd to limne as bold 
a designe, which th' decyphere' must dutifullie, and with 
patience, bring to perfection." See now this same 



220 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

question of "Like with Like" presented in Milton 
p. 69, 151 and 212. On p. 151 we have: 

"Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged 
The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs, 
Adverse to life; then founded, then conglobed. 
Like things to like, the rest to several place 
Disparted, and between spun out the Air, 
And Earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung." 

See now p. 171 our tracings of Bacon in Milton, as 
to "Hot, Cold, Moist and Dry." 

And, so we see, the "Clothes- Volume" of the "Sartor 
Resartus" was being tagged, hooked and buttoned to- 
gether by the difi^erent cypher Arts, reader. In earlier 
pages, p. 197, we have claimed the "Sartor Resartus" 
to include Bacon's greatest, or Overall cypher of his 
Second period, his "Alphabet of Nature," and which 
Mrs. Gallup has not, as yet, discovered. Nor p. 199 did 
Bacon wish to have it discovered by his decipherer 
until after the works of his First period had been evolved. 
See his own words in this, p. 201, as to this "last contriv- 
ance," the "key of my new invention." 

So now from his Cypher Work, p. 129, he, to his de- 
cipherer says: "Many times I have a sense of my 
kinde companion's presence, yet at the bottome of 
every other desire, is a hope that this Cypher shall not 
have beene seene or read when my summons shall come. 
Therefore tranquillity is an impossible state, and I am 
torn betwixt feare that it bee too well hid, and a desire 
to see all my devices for transmitting this wondrous 
history, preserv'd and beque'th'd to a future generatio', 
undiscov'r'd." 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 221 

This Cypher concerns; see our presentation at p. 199 
and 201, "the two secret epistles (expressly teaching a 
Cypher now for the first time submitted, doubtfully, 
for examination, and study, by any who may be suffi- 
ciently curious, patient, or industrious)." 

Touching the use of "parentheses" from the "Sartor 
Resartus," p. 38, we quote thus: "Of his sentences 
perhaps not more than nine-tenths stand straight on 
their legs; the remainder are in quite angular attitudes, 
buttressed up by props (of parentheses and dashes) and 
ever with this or the other tagrag hanging from them." 

In the Cypher work itself, p. 167, the mentioned 
Cypher is said to be "my great Cypher of Cyphers." 
See also p. 127, 165, 218, 219, 353 and 356. And on 
p. 346 we have: "Seeke th' key-words if you would 
find th' secrets I shall write or anie alreadie told, for a 
newe name must now bee given him who shewes here 
written some pages of his hidden history. This you 
may finde clearly tolde in the Word-Cypher if it be still 
to seeke, but as I have mentioned it in severall places I 
must be allow'd the hope that you have found the letter 
I have written which contains the directions in itself for 
a Cypher of a very great valew for my purposes." See 
this letter and Cypher again referred to at p. 155. And 
on p. 349: "This Cypher then is of value to future 
generations." Then see please p. 353 as to this the 
Overall cypher of the Second period yet to be found, 
we say, in the "Sartor Resartus." 

We have here in the mentioned Cypher a touch, not 
only of a new literary age, but of a new method of 
portraying it. The fact that the Cyphers in the works, 
written by Bacon after his fall, do not detail, either that 
event, or events thereafter; supports our claim. It is 



222 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

evidence, also, of the truth of Mrs. Gallup's great work. 
Now on p. 360 of it will be found material which we 
think definitely concerns the opening of this Second 
literary period. 

To show from the author's own words that his 
"Sartor Resartus" covers a Second literary period, he, 
p. 230 says: "Writings of mine, not indeed known as 
mine (for what am I?), have fallen, perhaps not alto- 
gether void, into the mighty seedfield of Opinion; 
fruits of my unseen sowing gratifyingly meet me here 
and there. I thank the Heavens that I have now found 
my Calling; wherein, with or without perceptible 
result, I am minded diligently to persevere. 'Nay how 
knowest thou', cries he, but this and the other pregnant 
Device, now grown to be a world-renowned far-working 
Institution; like a grain of right mustard-seed once 
cast into the right soil, and now stretching out strong 
boughs to the four winds, for the birds of the air to lodge 
in, — may have been properly my doing? Some one's 
doing it without doubt was; from some Idea, in some 
single Head, it did first of all take beginning; why 
not from some Idea in mine?" Note "Second Youth," 
p. 214. 

As, to "my works," see p. 194, 195, and 202, 216. 
And on p. 217 he says: "If I have had a second-crop, 
and now see the perennial greensward, and sit under 
umbrageous cedars, which defy all Drought (and Doubt); 
herein too, be the Heavens praised, I am not without 
examples; and even examplers." And contrasting his 
labors with those of Alexander he on p. 202 says: "Thou 
too art a Conqueror and Victor; but of the true sort, 
namely over the Devil: thou too hast built what will 
outlast all marble and metal, and be a wonder-bringing 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 223 

City of the Mind, a Temple and Seminary and Prophetic 
Mount, whereto all kindreds of the Earth will pilgrim." 
Touching the "Architect" and "Hodman" see p. 130. 

Touching now this "Temple," and Alexander, see, 
please, our p. 107 to 109; then p. 140. 

In the Cypher Work, of this temple, p. 171 Bacon 
says: "When the partes are separated, put all matter 
of like kinde together in boxes, which have been so 
marked with keies and joining-wordes that you may 
follow the plans with ease, not carefull for the outcome, 
since I am Architect, you the Master-builder: yours 
is the hand that shall erect the temple, when you shall 
bring to a selected place the fairest stones which you 
can finde, and cedar-wood hewed and shaped, so that 
you could raise towards heaven my Solomon's Palace, 
and nowhere be heard either ax, or hammer, or any 
instrument of iron, as you put them in place." 

We would here say, returning to the "Sartor Re- 
sartus," that a secret relentless urging "Forward" 
seems to have been the true mainspring to the author's 
vast literary doings; and so p. 185, we have: "A nameless 
Unrest, says he, urged me forward; to which the outward 
motion was some momentary lying solace. Whither should 
I go? My Loadstars were blottedout; in that canopy of 
grim fire shone no star. Yet forward must I; the ground 
burnt under me; there was no rest for the sole of my foot. 
I was alone, alone! Ever too the strong inward longing 
shaped Fantasms for itself: towards these, one after 
the other, must I fruitlessly wander. A feeUng I had 
that, for my fever-thirst, there was and must be some- 
where a healing Fountain. To many fondly imagined 
Fountains, the Saints' Wells of these days, did I pilgrim; 
to great Men, to great Cities, to great Events: but 



224 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

found there no healing." A little further on he says: 
"Nevertheless still forward! I felt as if in great haste; 
to do I saw not what. From the depths of my own 
heart, it called to me, Forwards! The winds and the 
streams, and all Nature sounded to me. Forwards! 
Ach Gott, I was even, once for all, a Son of Time." His 
mission seems as if begirt by "the ring Necessity." 
See p. 121, 151 and 284. And on p. 134 he says; "I 
was like no other." See "Forward" our p. 149. 

As to the author's early acquired ability to portray 
"characters," as spread into every phase of the writings 
under review, we, p. 143, quote thus: 

"Nay from the chaos of that Library, I succeeded 
in fishing up more books perhaps than had been known 
to the very keepers thereof. The foundation of a 
Literary Life was hereby laid: I learned, on my own 
strength, to read fluently in almost all cultivated lan- 
guages, on almost all subjects, and sciences; farther, as 
man is ever the prime object to man, already it was my 
favorite employment to read character in speculation, 
and from the Writing to construe the Writer. A cer- 
tain groundplan of Human Nature and Life began to 
fashion itself in me; wondrous enough, now when I look 
back on it; for my whole Universe, physical and spiritual, 
was as yet a Machine!" Hence to Ophelia in the 
Play "whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet!" Note 
p. 163 "the mean clay-hamlets of Reality." 

As to the author's early "Translations," see p. 153; 
and on p. 135 we have: "So much we can see; darkly, 
as through the foliage of some wavering thicket: a 
youth of no common endowment, who has passed happily 
through Childhood, less happily yet still vigorously 
through Boyhood, now at length perfect in 'dead 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 225 

vocables', and set down, as he hopes, by the living 
Fountain, there to superadd Ideas and Capabilities." 
His Mission, see our p. 24. 

Turning now to the "Cypher Story" itself, touching 
"Translations" see p. 114, 118, 219, 220, and 313. 
From p. 118 we quote thus: "Besides the playes, three 
noteworthie translations are found in our workes, viz: 
Th' Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, and the Aeneid of 
Virgil, togather with a number of lesser workes of this 
sort, and a few short poemes. There is also the story, 
in verse, of th' Spanish Armada, and th' story of my 
owne life." See our p. 199. 

Let the reader turn here to our "Defoe Period" 
p. 518, where will be found the same identical use of 
Capital Letters; and read attentively the Defoe paper 
on Pope's translation of Old Homer in relation to the 
"Spinners and Weavers." Then, as to these "Spinners 
and Weavers" let him read p. 312 and 313 of the "Sar- 
tor Resartus," and say, if he can; Carlyle was its author. 

Now on p. 144 we have: "He appears, though in 
dreary enough humour, to be addressing himself to the 
Profession of Law; — whereof, indeed, the world has 
since seen him a public graduate." Note p. 136 to 144 
what he says of his university days, and his views of the 
then English universities. Then see our p. 122. 

We here turn to its Chapter on "Symbols;" and to 
Bacon's motives for concealment, and silence, in working 
out his vast posterity drama. Its second paragraph, p. 
252 opens thus: "The benignant efficacies of Conceal- 
ment, cries our Professor, who shall speak or sing? 
SILENCE and secrecy! Altars might still be raised to 
them (were this an altar-building time) for universal 
worship. Silence is the element in which great things 



226 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

fashion themselves together; that at length they may 
emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of 
Life, which they are thenceforth to rule. Not William the 
Silent only, but all the considerable men I have known, 
and the most undiplomatic and unstrategic of these, 
forbore to babble of what they were creating and pro- 
jecting. Nay, in thy own mean perplexities, do thou 
thyself but hold thy tongue for one day: on the morrow, 
how much clearer are thy purposes, and duties; what 
wreck and rubbish have those mute workmen within 
thee swept away, when intrusive noises were shut out!" 

In the next paragraph we have: "Bees will not work 
except in darkness; Thought will not work except in 
Silence: neither will Virtue work except in Secrecy. 
Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth! 
Neither shalt thou prate even to thy own heart of 
"those secrets known to all." Is not Shame the soil of 
all Virtue, of all good manners, and good morals? 
Like other plants. Virtue will not grow unless its root 
be hidden, buried from the eye of the sun. Let the sun 
shine on it, nay, do but look at it privily thyself, the root 
withers, and no flower will glad thee." 

Note here Dark Authors, to be touched later. 

A little further on we have: "Of kin to the so 
incalculable influences of Concealment, and connected 
with still greater things, is the wondrous agency of 
Symbols. In a Symbol there is concealment and yet 
revelation: here, therefore, by Silence and by Speech 
acting together, comes a doubled significance. And if 
both the Speech be itself high, and the Silence fit and 
noble, how expressive will their union be!" The genius 
which produced the "Pilgrim's Progress," was weaving 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 227 

here, reader. To Bacon's "Symbol Cypher" we have 
already made reference, p. 200. 

Note, "Silence is the element in which great things 
fashion themselves together." As to the putting together 
of the parts of this anatomy, we, from the "Tale of a 
Tub" addressed to Posterity; using Everyman's Library 
edition of the work, on p. 81, have "To this end I have 
some time since, with a world of pains and art, dissected 
the carcase of human nature, and read many useful 
lectures upon the several parts, both containing and 
contained; till at last it smelt so strong I could preserve 
it no longer. Upon which I have been at great expense 
to fit up all the bones with exact contexture and in due 
symmetry; so that I am ready to show a very complete 
anatomy thereof to all curious gentlemen and others. 
But not to digress farther in the midst of a digression, 
as I have known some authors enclose digressions in one 
another like a nest of boxes, I do affirm that, having 
carefully cut up human nature, I have found a very 
strange, new, and important discovery, that the public 
good of mankind is performed by two ways, instruction 
and diversion." Note these "boxes" already referred 
to in the Cypher Story, p. 223 and see p. 211. 

In our "Defoe Period" p. 573 and 549 to 589 we 
call "A Tale of a Tub" under careful review. On p. 
549 to 554 note that it was a waif and how it came first 
to the press. It was a designed Ark to preserve learning. 
See our p. 120 to 123, and 142 to 146. 

This work, now supposed Dean Swift's and ad- 
dressed to "Prince Posterity" was also a waif from the 
Bacon budget. It was first put forth anonymously. 
It was not published as Swift's. It contains great sub- 
tlety. We have since our "Defoe Period," some new 



228 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

thoughts concerning it. How long after Bacon's fall 
was it written? See please p. 18, 20 and 27. Did it, 
in manuscript, contain the uncalled for use of capital 
letters? See p. 118 to 121. Note on p. 132 Bacon's 
distinctive use of the word "invention," where we have: 
"In my disposure of the employments of the brain I 
have thought fit to make invention the master, and to 
give method and reason the office of its lackeys." The 
"Sartor Resartus" was a later product. We show now 
how the clothes philosophy first took shape in the author's 
mind. In the "Tale of a Tub" p. 57 he says: "I have, 
with much pains and reading, collected out of ancient 
authors this short summary of a body of philosophy 
and divinity, which seems to have been composed by a 
vein and race of thinking very different from any other 
systems either ancient or modern. And it was not 
merely to entertain or satisfy the reader's curiosity, but 
rather to give him light into several circumstances of 
the following story; that, knowing the state of disposi- 
tions and opinions in an age so remote, he may better 
comprehend those great events which were the issue of 
them. I advise, therefore, the courteous reader to peruse 
with a world of application, again and again, whatever 
I have written upon the matter." See p. 5, 55 to 58 and 
171. 

Now the "Tale of a Tub" is presented as a work 
designed temporarily to avert unfavorable influences 
upon both church and state by reason of the already 
mentioned Hobbes' "Leviathan." Seep. 33. Note then 
the "Leviathan" in Milton p. 14 and 155. 

The "Tub" is designed to divert the whale, the 
"Leviathan," until other preparations can be made to 
protect the ship of state. The "Tub" presents the 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 229 

side of the church and literature; in the controversy, 
for reform; by using alternating Sections; leaving the 
work of protection, as to the state; until other plans 
can be perfected. The author's lash is aimed here, as in 
the other works, chiefly at Papists and Calvin, or the 
Presbyterians. See our p. 133, and 204. 

After the words, "Popish plots" in Section 1, p. 52, 
there exists, we judge, a short, but most vile interpola- 
tion. The motive, now. 

Referring in this Section itself p. 45 to Scotland; we 
have: * Of pulpits there are in this island several sorts; 
but I esteem only that made of timber from the sylva 
Caledonia (Scotland)." And see please p. 103, 120 to 130. 
King James 1st is referred to, we say, on p. 124 where 
we have: "He was also the first in these kingdoms who 
began to improve the Spanish accomplishment of 
braying." 

In this work, the retailoring period of its own great 
author begins; and, first, with the church. Bacon's 
First period productions, including his Hobbes' "Levia- 
than," with its now offensive divine right of Kings 
doctrine, are to be weeded, retailored. This is to be 
effected by his "Classic Authors in Wood" — his own 
"Grubean Sages." In weeding matters which concern 
the State, the prose writings of Milton were chief, 
though handled by them all, especially by Defoe. See 
the Addison articles on matters of state, in Vol. 5. 

In the work itself, p. 48 these Sages are called "the 
Grub Street brotherhood." We touch here the method 
devised for bringing forth the great scheme. The en- 
tire body of literary work is presented, as grounded 
upon three literary societies; "Gresham and Will's" 
being offshoots from the first. Those mentioned are 



230 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

said to be "seminaries not only of our planting, but 
our watering too." The two offspring societies are 
said to seek the ruin of the first. And those from the 
first, are said to desert to them. These three societies 
were to establish, we judge, the new Forum, the Club 
System, the new Seats of Learning of the Defoe period. 
See in this, please, p. 4, 48, 115 to 118 and 159. 

In the great scheme, this permits "Gresham and 
Will's" to draw from, discuss, and retailor, works of 
the First period: and pour them thence into the new 
Forum ; whereby the entire age freed from literary domina- 
tion might become cultured upon every phase of human 
learning. See here, "The Battle of the Books," p. 143 
to 169; and our p. 120 to 126. 

Under subtle forms of entertainment, in the work, 
are couched the firmest truths. Whatever is satire, 
should be culled, placed and studied. King James 1st, 
was Scotch and Presbyterian, and is made to personate 
not only Calvin, or Jack; but minor religious sects. 
He is presented as having a foot in the same center with 
Peter, or the Church of Rome. See our p. 133. When 
will our instructors in English literature furnish forth 
an explanation of these works.'' Like the Sonnets, they 
have long defied interpretation. 

On p. 49 the author claims there were grubean ages 
as well as sages. He says: "In consequence of these 
momentous truths the grubaean ages have always 
chosen to convey their precepts and their arts shut up 
within the vehicles of types and fables; which having 
been perhaps more careful and curious in adorning 
than was altogether necessary, it has fared with these 
vehicles, after the usual fate of coaches over-finely 
painted and gilt, that the transitory gazers have so 



CYPHER ARTS OF BOTH PERIODS 231 

dazzled their eyes and filled their imaginations with the 
outward lustre, as neither to regard or consider the 
person or the parts of the owner within." See "the 
republic of dark authors," p. 118; and what "dark" 
means. 

And on p. 83 the author says: "I must needs own it 
was by the assistance of this arcanum that I, though 
otherwise impar, have adventured upon so daring an 
attempt, never achieved or undertaken before, but by 
a certain author called Homer; in whom, though other- 
wise a person not without some abilities, and, for an 
ancient, of a tolerable genius, I have discovered many 
gross errors, which are not to be forgiven his very ashes, 
if by chance any of them are left. For whereas we are 
assured he designed his work for a complete body of all 
knowledge, human, divine, political, and mechanic, 
it is manifest he has wholly neglected some, and been 
very imperfect in the rest." Let Sections 1, 5 and 7 be 
here read with care. Section 7, p. 93 opens thus: "I 
have sometimes heard of an Iliad in a nutshell; but it 
has been my fortune to have much oftener seen a nut- 
shell in an Iliad. There is no doubt that human Hfe 
has received most wonderful advantages from both; 
but to which of the two the world is chiefly indebted I 
shall leave among the curious as a problem worthy of 
their utmost inquiry." See Homer, our p. 225. 

That Bacon was the restorer of ancient learning 
and the true ancient critic, see please Section 3 in full 
p. 63 to 71. See then p. 17 and 18 what is said of the 
already mentioned Duke of Buckingham; and the 
quarrel between the spider and the bee p. 9 and 10; 
and the now adverse criticism through Momus, and 
the downing of the author, p. 145 to 163. The men- 



232 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

tioned "Horse I ride" in the "Sartor Resartus" will here 
be found at p. 18, 19, 119, 150, 156, 160 and 171. 

Having so much yet to say, it is with regret, we 
assure the reader, that we here close the outlining of this 
great drama. Let it be done in the words Bacon puts 
into the mouth of his Addison Vol. 6, p. 582 concern- 
ing the mentioned Brotherhood, where we have: 
"Now sing we whence the puppet-actors came, 

What hidden power supplies the hollow frame; 

What cunning agent o'er the scenes presides. 

And all the secret operation guides. 

The turner shapes the useless log with care, 

And forces it a human form to wear: 

With the sharp steel he works the wooden race, 

And lends the timber an adopted face. 

Tenacious wires the legs and feet unite, 

And arms connected keep the shoulders right. 

Adapted organs to fit organs join, 

And joints with joints, and limbs with limbs combine. 

Then adds he active wheels and springs unseen. 

By which he artful turns the small machine. 

That moves at pleasure by the secret wires; 

And last his voice the senseless trunk inspires. 

From such a union of inventions came. 

And to perfection grew, the puppet-frame; 

The workman's mark its origin reveal. 

And own the traces of the forming steel. 

Hence are its dance, its motions, and its tone, 

Its squeaking voice, and accents not its own." 

Let the foregoing be called to direct relation, point 

by point, with Bacon's government model found at the 

opening of his "Leviathan," and with his words wherein 

he says: "I will instruct the actors and serve posterity." 



INDEX 



Air, O ancient power of, p. 156. A permanent body; not compounded; a 
body through which all other bodies are seen, p. 156 to 158. 
Then 68 to 75. Its "middle regions" p. 171 to 174 and 211. 

Astronomy, Distinctive. Bacon's own system, p. 162 to 166, 171 to 174, 
210 and 211. 

Allegory, "I did Pilgrim," p. 223 to 227; then 121 and 217; the "Pil- 
grim's Progress," p. 115, 135 to 138, 162, and 183 to 187. 

Alphabet, Nature's. Bacon's greatest discovery, p. 3, 7, 49, 51, 57, 66, 
75, 107, 155, 172, 195 to 198, 200, 201, 206. 207, 218 to 223. 

Areopagitica, Protest against legal restraint upon authorship, p. 153 
and 197. 

Anonymous, Writings. Defoe, p. 126 and 127. Addison, p. 142 and 143. 
Swift, p. 142, 208 and 227. 

Almanac, Noted BickerstafF papers and the almanac, p. 42 and 125. 

B 

Bacon, Sir Francis. His Genesis, p. 7, 12, 13, 20, 23, 105, 193, 211,213,215 
and 217. 

Bacon, The "sorry bookmaker." His own believed in covert mission, 
p. 3 to 6, 24, 58, 59, 111, 112, 121 to 124, 140, 142, 151 to 155, 
168, 190, 200, and 222 to 232. 

Bacon, A concealed poet, p. 17 to 26, 80 to 87, 141, 153, 190 to 194. 

Bacon, A secret relentless urging "Forward" the mainspring to his 
vast literary doings, p. 24, 149 and 223 to 228. 

Bacon, And Alexander the Great. Doings contrasted by Bacon himself, 
p. 140, 152 and 222. 

Bacon, In his Milton, p. 155 to 190. In his "Sartor Resartus," p. 192 
to 228. In his Cypher ^york, p. 197 to 225. In his "Tub;" 
his Ark to preserve learning, p. 123, 141 to 143 and 227 to 232. 

Bacon, Sir Francis. His Shakespeare Sonnets. Their two Sentinels. 
These double — lock the door, p. 7, 26, 47, and 81 to 87. Rea- 
sons for their use, p. 39. Numbering blurs Sonnet relations, 
p. 9, 10, and 33. Collating them into related parts, "Our 
Door of Entrance," p. 12 to 16. 

1. Part 1, Concerns Queen Elizabeth and her successor, p. 7, 10, and 
20 to 22 and 151. Their author's struggle with her royal 
"Will," p. 13 and 21 to 24. 



234 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

2. King James, and the author's self-told overthrow, p. 8 to 11, and 27 

to 45; then 87 to 92, and 102 to 109, 123. The noted Over- 
bury trial, and the King, p. 28, and 90 to 96. 

3. The author's wonder, p. 56 and 57. His tabular system of phil- 

osophy, p. 48 to 80. Its eternized tables, p. 62 to 75. Its 
" blessed key," p. 5, 64, 67, 68, and 75 to 79; then 66 to 75, 
155 to 157 and 190. 

4. The author's "noted weed," of the Sonnets, and its laudation, p. 

13, 14, 57, 80 to 87, 150 and 217. His pronoun cover words used 
in them, p. 9, 10, 14 to 16, 82, 148 and 194. 
New life "on second head" by the author, p. 10, 105 to 110, 113, 129 
and 222 to 230. 

Bacon, Overthrow told now in facts of history, p. 28 to 30, 36 to 39, 41 to 
46, 59; then 90 to 105, 109, 110, and 123. The Trap, Bacon 
within it, p. 37, 41 to 46, 94, 95, 98, 103, 104, 108 and 109. 

C 

Cyphers, Those made use of by Bacon, p. 200. " My last contrivance," 
p. 87, 102, 129, 192, 195 to 198, 201, 202, 217. 
Deciphered work, p. 197, 199, 204, 206, 207, 211 to 214, 217, 219 to 
225. See then p. 51 to 54. 

Characters, AbiHty to portray them, p. 124 and 224. 

Cromwell, His party the Independents, and their aims, p. 129 to 135, 
137, 143 to 146, 204 and 229. 



D 
Duty, Duty and passive obedience, p. 29, 30, 45 and 205. Cultured 

roots, p. 215. 
Domination, Both literary and ecclesiastic, p. 119 to 127. Fold broken 

from, p. 119 and 120. 
Defoe period. Involves it no mystery? p. 125, 144, 196, 207 and 208. 
Dreams — ^Visions. They disclose ideational possibilities, p. 182, 192; 

then 182 and 204. 



Enigmas, The title-page to the Shakespeare Sonnets, p. 26 and 83. To 
the Plays, p. 198. The Epitaph, p. 86. The Monument, p. 84. 
The author's own monument, p. 45, 107 to 114. 

Envy, Ever at the door of him who thinks himself wise, p. 24. 

Evil, The knowledge of. Its value to him who would be the true in- 
structor, with Bacon's views, p. 113 to 117 and 139. Knowledge, 
the only true fence, against evil, p. 115. 



INDEX 235 

Entertainment, No valued culture without it, p. 6, 113, and 115 to 118, 

120, 183 and 193. 
Earth, The mother of nature. Pendulous. Self-balanced. Her womb 
and tomb, p. 163, and 165 to 174. 

F 

Forms, God only the Architect of, p. 57. They, as "surds," represent 
the laws, "the simple natures" that compose Bacon's great 
"Alphabet," p. 3 to 6; then 49, 196 to 199 and 220. Found 
only by "Tables of Discovery," p. 49, 50, 65 to 80, and 201. 

Formula, The Key; the onlv door to Bacon's system, p. 51, 68, 75, 155, 
197, 199, and 207. ' 

G 
Gifts, Bacon's mental, p. 6, 110 to 114, 119, 145, 154, 161, 194 and 200. 

See "The Gifted," p. 146 to 151. 
Garment, The Tailor's Art, p. 76, 193, 195, 209 and 212. 
Government, Bacon's model and writings, p. 4, 100 to 102, 119, 132 to 

136, 137 to 140, 143 to 145, 146 to 152, 180, 185, 187, 203 to 

206, 208 to 211 and 228 to 230. 

H 
Highgate, Bacon, and the Hague, p. 127 to 129, 145 and 218. 
Harley, Sir Robert and Bacon's "cabinets, boxes and presses." He the 

financial movement behind the manuscripts, p. 7, 113, 118, 127, 

•129 and 202. 

History, Bacon's Natural. Like no other, p. 50, 51, 57, 64, 73 and 74. 
This "the bosom to philosophy." The "New Organ," from 
that bosom was to draw "nature's sweet milk," p. 74. 

I 
Intelligence, Instinctive, Ideational, Creative, p. 159; and "the dis- 
course of reason," p. 158. 
Invention, The Master, p. 50, 55, 70 and 228. 
Instauration, Bacon's. Its different parts, p. 51, 64 to 66. 

J 
Jewels, Bacon's, p. 28, 68, 77 to 79, and 201. 

K 

Knowledge, The true Baconian mark, p. 68. 

King, Charles 1st; and the noted army prayer meeting in 1648, where 
his death was resolved upon, p. 137 to 139, and 180. 



236 FRANCIS BACON S OWN STORY 

L 
Learning, Bacon's advancement and new seats of, p. 25, 120, 123 to 128 

and 227 to 232. These the new Forum, p. 119, 120, 121, 141 to 

146, and 230. Their structure, the nurse to his own thoughts, 

as well as to others, p. 120, 122 and 125. 
Light, Its origin, p. 74, 75, 154 to 156, and 161. 
Love. Love and lust, and their effects, as spread throughout these 

writings, p. 116. 
Literature. English. And "the good pens that forsake me not," p. 

6, 44, 112, 151 and 202. 

M 

Magic, Persian. Bacon's knowledge of, touching both government and 

philosophy, p. 209 to 211, and 217. 
Metaphysics. In metaphysics Bacon differs from all others, p. 154, 191 

and 192. 
Mythology, Bacon's in his Milton, p. 170 to 190. In other works, p. 

140 to 142, 170, 174, 176, 183, and 193. 
Mythus, The new, p. 4, 132, 135, 154, 193, 208, 213 to 216, 218 to 222, 

229; or the collated "host of divine works" mentioned at p. 4. 

See p. 98. 
Manuscripts, Undated, misplaced, tampered with, garbled, p. 44, 61,67, 

68, 73, 103, 111, 122 to 124, 126 and 145. 
Mysteries, The Hebrew; the sciences, the Alphabet, p. 49, 174, 179, 

183, 186, 193, and 196. 

N 
Nature. God's Art. Her key, her apex, the human body, p. 3, 156, 
203, 208, 224 to 232. Heat and cold, her two hands, p. 172. 
Her contending grounds "the middle regions" of the air, p. 
172 to 174 and 21 1. Her warriors; " Hot, Cold, Moist and Dry," 
p, 170 to 174, 218 and 220. Earth, her womb and tomb, p. 
163, 169 and 171. 

O 
Obedience, Duty and obedience cultured roots from the outset, p. 29, 
30, 45, 99, 104, 205 and 215. 

P 
Philosophy, Bacon's. Is tabular. It differs from all others, p. 3 to 6, 
and 48 to 80. So distinctive is it, as not to be contrasted even, 
with those extant, p. 71 to 75. Its critics unjust, p. 50,61, 71 
to 74, 79 and 200. It can be opened only by means of a key. 
It was structured for an Interpreter, p. 50, 51, 57, 64, 67, 164, 



INDEX 237 

165, 185, 199, 201 and 218. It was not designed to take the 
place of existing methods, p. 52; but for a secret order, "The 
Sons of Science" of his "New Atlantis," p. 67, 95, 99, 100, 104, 
117, to 120, 143, 151, 154 and 199. Confused by undated mis- 
placed parts, p. 67 to 71. 

R 
Reform. Bacon's vast literary carcass, p. 119, 124, 125, 139 to 142, 154 
197 and 203. Its never before attempted method of introduc- 
tion, p. 6, 208, 228 to 232. Was secretary, not merely to Crom- 
well and the Independents, p. 144 and 145; but to "His Royal 
Highness Prince Posterity," by aid of that evolved " Brother- 
hood," his "Classic Authors in Wood," p. 142, 194, 195 and 229. 

S 
Soul. Its outer walls. Its fading mansion, p. 137 and 192. 
Substance. Distinctive views by Bacon touching substance, colors and 

light, p. 61, 67 to 71, 74 to 76, 155 to 159, 170, 192 to 194, 213 

and 214. 
Satan. The deeps of, should be all known to him who would be the true 

instructor with Bacon's views, p. 6, 114 to 116, 139 to 141 and 

176. 

T 

Teufelsdrockh, Prof. T., and Queen Elizabeth's apron; and the little 
piece of Persian silk that covered his baby face in the Basket, 
when first viewed by his foster parents, p. 211, 213 and 217. 

Translations. Early work, p. 224 to 226. 

U 
Universities. Bacon's views concerning these seats of learning, p. 119 
to 123 and 225. 

V 

Vocabulary. Bacon's throughout the writings here called under re- 
view, p. 46, 47, 119, 125, 146, 187 and 202. The law of his 
words, see p. 116 to 119. 

W 

Waifs. The Carlyle, from the Bacon Budget; some of them woefully 
garbled, p. 130 to 134, 138, 146 to 151, 152, 193, 216 and 225. 
Other waifs, p. 137, 142, 143, 145 and 227. 



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